Hidden Danger Crouching Cat
by Hearns
Summary: Max and Gang encounter a group of transgenics who are the key to her and the Residents of TC future survival. (set pre and post Freak Nation) Author Notes Added to the story. COMPLETE.
1. Chapters 1 thru 3 Opening Acts

Hidden Danger Crouching Cat.

By Shannon Hearn

The characters of Dark Angel are owned by Twentieth Century Fox Television and Cameron Eglee productions. All other characters are of my creation.

Chapter 1: Job Search

The weather in Post Pulse Seattle was still rainy as usual as the weather of January of twenty-twenty-one rolled around. The year had been full of surprises since Manticore had gone up in smoke. The people of Seattle were afraid of the Mutant menace that was walking the streets, some human and some not-so human. The fear was wild on the street and many of the Transgenics were feeling the heat from the fear, and misunderstandings that were coming about the discovery of enhanced human in their midst's. 

For X5-424 and the survivors of that "attack" on Manticore, it had been a rough few months for him and the three other Transgenics that had escaped with him after command was compromised by a "terrorist threat". X5-424 had to deal with the circumstances of what had happened, knowing that the last official order from command that was not compromised was the order to disregard any future message and go to ground. When that signal had come through X5-424 had to cope with the fact that there was not going to be any support or help coming for him and the other survivors that he had located and rendezvous with in the woods just outside of the grounds of Manticore. The feeling of connection that he had with the three others that he had met up with had made him a default leader, but for the most part he was used to working alone when on assignment. Having others near him who did not know how he operated made him feel like if he failed everything would be lost. Somehow, fate had given X5-424 hope in the form of a fellow Transgenic, who was very empathic to how he actually felt about situations and that was X5-796. 

In the night of the fire, X5-424 was surprised when he located a fellow X5 in the woods. X5-424 had appeared in front of X5-796 like a shadow and since then the name sort of stuck.

Shadow had spent the time with 796 trying to locate other Transgenics and only were able to locate two other that night a half scared out of her wits X6 and a very mature genus level X8 in the woods. The effect of meeting these two in the same place but holding onto each other trying to make sense of what was happening to them. That was about five months ago. 

The effects of the events had started to set fully in about now. Shadow had gotten a job working at a hotel doing the night audit, for the six-foot five Transgenic, the hotels wardrobe dress code of dress shirt and dark pants was simple enough to fulfill. Since his filed assignments that he had performed he had on one mission created an account so that he could finance himself with the funds that he had needed while deep cover doing a track and recover mission. It took him about a week to withdraw that funds out of the account without being tracked by officials due to the account being part of a hidden laundering account for the people that he was order to track located and terminate with extreme prejudice. 

With the twenty thousand dollars in cash, that Shadow had gotten his hands on he was able to create some identities for himself and the other Transgenics that were with him since the night of the fire. The names that he and the other had created were for him himself Shane Shadows, for X5-796, a woman of Polynesian ethnicity she had chosen the name of Aspen Anderson Kilowa. The younger Transgenics such as X6-209 and X8-219 had chosen the names of Melfina Nichle and Jim MacGuyver. The unit functioned as a loose connection of people trying to keep going day in and day out as they started to run a search pattern for other of their kind. 

The night was quietly passing along for this small hodgepodge unit as each of them was started to settle in for. Aspen had the newspaper in front of her as she searched through the want ads for a job and then she something caught hold of her attention. 

Job wanted; looking for hard working people, like to work outside, have street smarts about them and capable of handling themselves around people and must be courteous to others. Please apply at Jam Pony Delivery service in sector five.

"Hey Shadow, I think I found a job that might be able for us to find the others." Aspen said as she glanced up from the paper spread out on the floor and got up from her stomach. The old gray Mantacorian uniform t-shirt that Aspen was wearing barely covered up the panties that she had on as she got up off the floor with he almost unnaturally long and elegantly sculpted muscled body. Shadow looked over in the direction as her feline Polynesian face and slicked back long black hair hid the barcode on the back of her neck, came over to sit down on the couch that he was sitting on reading a previously read book that he had found at the street market. 

"Yeah what is it Aspen?" Shadow said looking into her violet eyes that could suck the life out of a person but could see things beyond normal reality. Shadow had come to trust her sixth sense as the Normals had called it as Aspen could sense danger and things that were off. Somehow, Aspen had used that sense to locate Melfina and Jim out of pure instinct. Shadow had come to trust those instincts of hers and when she showed him the article that she had circled, he took notice. 

"I think if I take this job I feel that I might be able to find other like us more quickly running a search pattern throughout the city." Aspen said to Shadow.

"I agree with you there Aspen," Shadow said as he took a look at the article more, "I think that you might want to take along Mel with you when you apply for the job, it might increase that odds of us succeeding" 

"What about Jim, given his age I don't think he will be able to have a job, or at least one that is legal." Aspen voiced with concern. 

"Well putting Jim into school would keep him out of trouble and it might put us at risk if he isn't careful with his capabilities and that dang barcode of his might get us exposed. So, I'll handle getting the cash for him to have his barcode removed and you handle in searching for the others like us. Deal Aspen."

"Deal Shadow" Aspen said to him as Shadow walked over to the calendar that he had made of his schedule of what he needed to do in the next few days, with the data coded with the training that they all had received at Manticore.

****

Chapter 2: The interview

Post New Years day jobs at Jam Pony were ones that everyone dreaded even for Max Guvierra. Even X5's had crappy days and walking over to Normal and complaining with him about the packages that they all had to deliver was getting a bit tedious even for her but everyone respected her and Original Cindy. Though Max could not stand the fact that Alec was getting on her nerves again, with another scheme up his sleeve between selling Joshua's artwork to the Iconographic gallery downtown and his occasional black-market deals. He was someone that although he was a jerk at times he was a closest thing to family she had right now and the two girls walking through the front door stated that Normal was expanding again with his operations again attempting to stabilize his market that he had and trying to keep the syndicate off his dang ass. 

"Listen up people this is a job, which means you wok and you get paid, now get off of your lazy butts and get to work" Normal bellowed as his constantly attached phone piece that he received orders though was ready to pick up another call. About that time two girls waked into through the door one of the girls looked Asian and the other looked like someone of Middle Eastern or Native American decent, maybe even Polynesian. However, given the way that Normal was looking at her, the poor guy was probably drooling from the mouth and another part of his anatomy. 

"Hi, me an my friend here are looking for a job and heard that you were hiring, so could you give us an interview?" The Polynesian girl asked, with a grin on her face and the combed backed hair of hers, which was drooping over her shoulders like a tropical waterfall. Normal would have given her his kidney, his liver, and probably even his heart and brain if she asked for them given the way that he acted. 

"Yeah, sure, whatever you want?" Normal said acting as if some love goddess wearing bluish gray sweats that were pulled up to the mid level of the calf's of her leg and a close fit lime green cut off sweater which revealed a bear well muscled catlike midriff. The way that she had walked in the room and talked, she could have asked him to pose with her for a swimsuit calendar and he was to be the water boy at the shoot. Max looked at the situation and realized that Normal needed to be slapped back to reality quick before this poor fool started to drool on the floor in front of this girl already. So Max did the only thing to solve the situation, she walked over and tapped him on the shoulder, then when that didn't work, she slapped him upside the head, with just enough force to bruise his ego not his gray matter in the process.

"Normal, you're drooling on the floor in front of future employees." Max said as she kicked some sense into his head as the girl slash love goddess blinked a few times. "If you are going to hire the girl do so already." Max turned towards the girls that were standing in front of her and felt that there was something off about these two but she could not put her finger on it as of yet. "Listen the pay is five fifty an hour plus tips that you make from deliveries." Max said as Normal recovered his senses, but for the most part, Max was giving the interview to the ladies. 

"So it is basically a search, locate and drop job each day." The Goddess said as her young twitchy Asian friend stared at her from the remark made. The young Asian girl who was wearing gray and blue urban combat fatigues pants and a bright orange red t-shirt that hung around her frame as if it was a second skin or was tacked on with glue at key places on her skin. The look on the younger girl's face was as if she was about to bolt out of the door. As if some secret that she had been concealing had been discovered about her and her friend and they were going to be shot on site. 

"I'll out in a request for your sector passes by the end of the day." Normal said as the feeling came back into his mind as the girls walked over with Max, "I'll just need your names so that the passes are in your names." With an urge of knowing that the two girls got jobs right off the bat they gave Normal their names, Melfina Nichle and Aspen Anderson Kilowa and filled out the base paperwork for the forms that Normal would need to get the Sector passes assigned to the through the Jam Pony corporate account. 

"Max why don't you and Alec take these two on a tour of what they need to do for the job?" Normal said as the realization that his life had been put into a level of strangeness that he had not considered. Dang the Girl had a body that would not quit, and he would have given her a job even if she had not asked for one. Now if Aspen were in a wet t-shirt contest he would die a very happy man.

***

Chapter 3: Bikes, Joyrides, and Steelheads.

After Max and Alec had gotten bikes for both Aspen and Melfina to use, Aspen and Melfina took a quick glance at the map of the city of where the sectors were and using the unconventional logic of their Manticore training to commit the map to memory. Aspen and Melfina split up with Alec and Max getting Aspen and Original Cindy getting the younger Melfina and with their respective packages. As the two groups left the shop, their day would get very interesting in the next few hours, 

***

Melfina's bike ride with Original Cindy was turning out to be very educational. However, the way that Cindy was looking at her was scaring her it was if Cindy knew that, she was a Transgenic. 

"Hey girl, you look as if I was going to eat you." Original Cindy said as she looked around to see how uncomfortable she was making Melfina. Maybe she should lay off at looking at her, the raw intensity that she was giving off was scaring the girl, and Cindy had the feeling that this Girl should have gone with Max since she had the feeling those two could understand one another in the tough life, don't trust anyone vibe they gave off when in public. 

"No, its not that I think that you're going to eat me, but I feel that I should have trained under someone else." Melfina said trying to shift away from her. 

"Listen Girl, I'm just a lesbian, not a Transgenic, so you don't have to worry about me taking your head off like it was a soccer ball at the world Soccer playoffs. Plus you're too young and too fidgety to be my type." Original Cindy said as the young girl seemed to back down, and relax a little, "so here is the deal, I'll trade with Max at lunch so that you feel safer, at least she is a heterosexual who chases after men every few months as if they are going out of style." The girl seemed for some reason to be at ease from the last statement that she made. "And Max will probably give you an idea about how to look for the job, instead of having your shyness so apparent with the clothes that you have thrown on." Cindy said as she looked at Melfina and the recent events of that morning were coming into a clearer idea of the situations with these girls the she noticed something on the back of Mel's neck. It was a barcode, all she needed was to ask Max what the hand sign was for friend meant and how to approach this girl without her killing herself in the process. .

In the back of Melfina's mind, she wondered how Aspen was doing with her two cohorts. And wither or not they knew what they were and wither or not she should bolt away from this woman who was eyeing her like she was a piece of meat.

****

Across town in sector seven, Max was busy keeping Alec's quick fast hormone crazed mind and hands off of this tall Polynesian Amazon warrior girl. Max had the feeling that this girl was something more than what she appeared to be, Max had kept her eyes open on the Woman in front of her watching to see if she did anything that was out of the ordinary, (especially anything that was Transgenic in nature). 

With the first delivery, Alec was trying to do his usually showing off in front of this girl, but Max though slamming Alec's head through a brick wall was out of the question. Therefore, for the next delivery Max took the lead with the girl showing her the ropes of how to do a delivery right.

"Here is the tip Aspen, you have to be polite to the person that you are delivering to." Max said as she walked up the steps of the suburbia house to drop off the eleven by nine flat rectangular package that she had underneath her arm. Aspen was watching every move that she made as if it was gong to be on some exam later. "Now Aspen you have to act relaxed and at ease towards the person that you meet at the door, and remember that courtesy is key for this job, not sex appeal." Max said, as she looked at Aspen in her clothes, boy did this girl need a lesson in fashion bad. This girl looked like her old roommate Kendra in her attempt to dress up and instead looked like a badly dressed, drowned cat version of Alyssa Milano without her hairdryer, al la Amazon warrior. "Aspen, after this run we are definitely doing some shopping for you, because your wardrobe is definitely clashing." Max said to Aspen as she stopped at the door to the hour and rang the doorbell.

The door was answered by a middle age blond woman wearing a tucked in t-shirt and sweat pants, whose clothes looked like there were brand new. "Hello?" the woman said as she looked at the two women at her front door.

"Jam Pony, Ma'am, We have a package for a Sara Douglas". The woman blinked at the two women for a moment until it registered with her. 

The woman asked "Do you have any identification with you to confirm who you are?" Quickly Max pulled out her badge to show that she was affiliated with Jam Pony. Aspen watched the situation develop. Then the woman looked at Aspen with a questioning look and Aspen replied, "I'm the trainee, just along to see how things are run." She aid as the woman looked towards Max again

""Here's the clipboard ma'am and sign on the line for your package." Max said as she held out the clipboard to the woman who looked down at the package that she was holding. Then she reached out and pulled out her pocket of her pants two-dollar coins and handed them to Max as the woman signed the paper on the clipboard then handed it back to Max. 

"Thank you, ma'am and have a nice day." Max said as he took hold of the Clipboard and turned away form the door as it closed behind her. Then looking at Aspen she said, "It goes as simple as that." As Aspen and Max walked down to where Alec was at, it was obvious that all Alec wanted was to see Aspen without her sweater on and probably her bra as well. 

"So, is it usually like this when a delivery is made?" Aspen stated as she started to look at Alec and Max More closely, trying to place where she had seen them at before. 

"It usually is, but there are a few cases where you should not do a job alone, especially when you're in sector three, that area tends to be gang turf." Max said as she remembered the time that she and Sketchy went down there and had to deliver a cut off finger to the leader of a rival gang, and Sketchy was worried that he would wind up in a body bag in the process. On another occasion Max had gone alone to the sector to deliver a package and wound up meeting the photographic Street Sweeper as he confronted her with pictures of her using her X5 powers to save a drunken Sketchy from a gang of thugs who were about to beat the crap out of both of them. Still she had the feeling that after hearing about the Manticore Exodus, that Sweeper would be coming back into Seattle, after she put him on a bus and told him to visit his mother. However, the nostalgia of the past was leading her away from her training this girl. "For the most part your runs will be done by yourself, but you will have to carry either a beeper or a cell phone with you while you are on duty."

"What if I don't own one?" Aspen spoke towards Max, with some worry.

"Well Probably during our lunch break, well swing by one of the electronic stores and well get you one, but Normal will have to have the number to contact you with when we get back. Now how about getting some lunch before we head back to the barn and pick up another load."

"Thanks Max," Aspen said as she turned towards Alec, with the drool coming out of his mouth, picturing her naked with beer and pizza in her perfect arms. "Alec are you coming with us to lunch?" She said as she realized that she was putting excessively much transgenic pheromones into the air and turning any male around her into hormonal overloaded puddle in the process. 

"Sure, whatever you want.... Are we having beer and pizza?". Were the only words that made sense out of Alec's mouth as he followed behind the two girls, no pun intended. 

****

Half an hour later, Max, Aspen and Alec showed up at a pizza place in sector five called "The Pizza Shack" a restaurant that happened to be a old cyber cafe prior to the pulse, but when the owner realized that he could make more money selling pizza and selling hard to find coffee. He just added the word "pizza" to the sign and kept business afloat until the kids and the bike messengers in the area found him and the place rather grew after that. For Max in her black long sleeve t-shirt and her gray work pants and blue book bag, she blended into the crowd as Max searched the crowd for OC and Melfina knowing it was a place where Max and a good portion of the Jam Pony staff met for lunch off and on. Unfortunately, Max noticed something wrong hen she saw OC and Melfina having a run in with a familiar foe. Spike of the Steelheads, whose nails coming out of his bald black head and the spiked blades extruding out of his sides of his hands and arms made his heavily muscular body sculpted from constant use of Andiphonine more menacing than he actually was. Moreover, judging from the looks that he was giving Melfina, he had noticed something on the back of her neck. Quickly using her telescopic sight, Max caught sight of the lower section of a Manticore barcode. British Eddie was on the prowl for Transgenics who could possible tell him where her brother Zack was, or Eddie was just on the prowl for amped up human, universally compatible organs. Either way, she was not letting this seven-foot tall gallute harm another of her people again, after what happened with her brother.

Max made her way over to where Melfina was standing in line to order her food with OC, And looked over towards where Spike was standing, Giving a look of really pissed off that this guy would soon notice. Max made the Manticore silent command gestures for "attack hostile has been located"; "terminate" and then she pointed right in his direction making him the target to take out. 

The look on Spike's face became very apparent when he saw; OC, Alec and another well-built girl look in his direction recognize the signals that the Latin Transgenic girl had given them. He soon realized that he was outnumbered and that whatever the sign Max had given to them, it was obvious that if he didn't leave now he would probably be ripped apart by at least five or more Mantacorians. 

Realizing that after going head to head with a Cybernetically enhanced Mantacorian, who slammed him Twitch, and their boss Eddie to separate coffins and locked the lids on them for grabbing that same Latino transgenic girl. He considered the fact that he didn't leave now; the cops would probably only find bits his skeleton and the several broken metal blades on his arms several months from now in some field. So, he split as fast as he could. He didn't even hear the guy behind the counter call his number for the pizza he ordered. 

Max looked at Melfina and saw that the girl was staring right at her realizing that she was a fellow transgenic. The poor girl looked like she had just been stripped necked in front of a crowd of people in a very public place. The word that Melfina was attempting to say was something along the lines of "Ma'am, yes Ma'am." But, the shock she was in the words came out her mouth as "Mahhmmmmmm, gesssssssss, mmmmmmmm..." a good part of her articulation was obliterated out of existence. 

Realizing that this girl had thought that Max had actually given a kill order, Max gave the all clear, and stand down commands gestures so that this poor girl would not go out and kill that Steelhead in front of this crowd of people. Max walked over with pizza sandwich that she had just picked up from the counter and sat down at the table where all five were now at. 

Melfina was scared, this was another transgenic and she probably was doing the same idea that Aspen had. But an order to attack, some guy with bio-punk implants in his body. What was going on here? Mel was about to burst out of her skin when Max spoke to her.

"Hey there... are you alright?" Max said as she tapped the girl on the shoulder. The look of fear was still present on Melfina's face and conflicting ideas were showing in her eyes. All Melfina could say in any clear form was her designation. 

"X6-209." And that sounded like she was stuttering it out. Aspen who had not seen the entire Steelhead fiasco that Mel had been witness to, gave Melfina a look of, "what are you doing?" 

"Mel, girl are you all right, you look like you just ate the preferable canary, with Tabasco sauce on it." OC said as the expression of contemplation came to Melfina's mind.

"Aspen... Max is one of us." Melfina said looking towards Max in fear and respect.

"Mel, you can chill, I won't hurt you," Max said as she turned her attention towards Aspen and a near drooling Alec. "Aspen, I suggest that you lay off the X5 pheromones and return Alec to his annoying self in the next few minutes or I will fetch my pet lesbian after you." Max said turning towards Original Cindy.

"Cindy remember that offer that you want me to do to you but I won't. Well I think that Aspen here might be up to it in the next few minutes if she doesn't release her control over Alec's Y chromosome in the next thirty seconds." Max said as something in OC's eyes lit up like the forth of July fireworks during the 1985 Statue of Liberty rededication in New York City. Original Cindy's fantasy of having sex with a Female X5 transgenic was leading her to almost drooling at the taste of Chimera Cunt on her lips. With that thought in her mind, Cindy placed her dark coca colored hand on Aspen's leg and did a soft firm squeeze. The bug eyed stare from Aspen was clear that she understood that she and Mel had been both made, and that their fate was in Max's hands. 

"Aspen I want you to take your hands and pull the back of Alec's shirt down and take a good look at who the heck that you are leading by his Y chromosomes." Max said to Aspen as she reached over to the back of Alec's shirt and pulled it down until she saw something that she thought she never see so soon under the plan she had... An X5 barcode. Aspen stared there for a second, letting what was happening sink in. 

"Aspen, everyone here at this table with the exception of Cindy here has the same birthmark in the same place." Max said, as both Melfina and Aspen blinked for several moments at her. "The only reason that OC knows what we are is that I had to use my powers to save her life once, and before that we were close friends." What Max didn't say was that she revealed what she was to Cindy only after inserting a Deposable Red implant into the back of her neck, fighting at least four no-pain, no-gain cyber freaks, and having a near fatal seizure in the process. That and while back at Logan's place Logan had given Cindy a cup of coffee correcto, a.k.a European coffee with a shot of Jack Daniels bourbon put into it. After an hour of Cindy just staring at her as she explained what she was, Cindy came to understand what Max was and who she was better because of it.

Melfina and Aspen were giving Max the same fearful look of what she was. Mel if you pull back the hair on the back of my neck you will see the same markings but that I am an X5. Max pulled the back of her hair back from her neck and felt Melfina's fingers touch and feel the details of her Barcode. The realization that Max was a true transgenic down to the correct coding of her barcode made Melfina and Aspen calm down. 

"Now Aspen, will you take your mind control ability off of Alec, it has been good having him not yap constantly, but it is now getting creepy. Once, you do, I'll call Cindy off." Max said as Alec, slowly regained some of his higher logic functions. 

"Uh, Max why are we in a restaurant, with the two new girls. Aren't we supposed to be working?" Alec said with a blank look on his face looking around. Then seeing Cindy's hand on Aspen's leg Alec freaked industrially. "Noooooo. The perfect babe, the Goddess of Beach Beauty is a lesbian..."

"Cindy you can take your hand off of Aspen's leg." Max said to Alec, "Sorry Alec, but I had to seek Cindy on Aspen so she could unwrap her control over you." Max said. 

"What... " Alec said.

"Alec, you were entranced by a fellow Chimera, and you were about to drool your very brains out of your skull."

"Now girls what is your story?" Max said to Aspen and Melfina.

***

TBC

The Origins of Melfina and Shadow


	2. Ch 4 Setting of Characters Pasts Pt 1

Hidden Danger Crouching Cat.

By Shannon Hearn

The characters of Dark Angel are owned by Twentieth Century Fox Television and Cameron Eglee productions. All other characters are of my creation.

Chapter 4: Origins, New Beginnings and Night Audits 

The flashback for Mel and Aspen for the morning that they were going to start working at Jam Pony Delivery Services was on of counter dictions and bad dreams. For Melfina who had taken her name from a Japanese Anime character, her dreams focused upon the night of the fire at Manticore. 

X6-209 was running through the hallways of the Manticore barracks, flames were erupting all around her and two other members of her unit, X6-330 and X6-228 were right beside her as they attempted to escape from the burning structure. As the three of them rounded the corner of the hallway and encountered, one of the security personnel in the standard gray and green security garb. X6-209 and her two cohorts thought that they found someone that could help them evacuate the premises and get the other Transgenics to safety. Then suddenly she heard something that she never thought she would hear from a guard, "Die you filthy Transgenic!!!"

Those words rang with a cold harshness that terrified her to her very being. By the Blessed Blue Lady, Mother of them all. He was an infiltrator, and she and her cohorts had run directly into him. The next few seconds passed like a possessed nightmare, as he took the HK-90 assault rifle and open fire upon the three of them. Somehow, as she turned to run away, the shots had missed her out of some supernatural force. But X6-330 and X6-228 were not as lucky, they were both mowed down by the infiltrators gunfire. Under some circumstance that was behind X6-209's control and been caught under the dead bodies of her friends. She was pinned to the floor and unable to get up and get away. As X6-209 was struggling to get out from under the bodies and the infiltrator was approaching to finish her off, a miracle happened. As she heard the click of the rifle being switched from full auto to single shot. Another voice was heard, a deep meaty, bestial growling voice that said, "Get away from her." All X6-209 was able to see was some longhaired seven-foot tall transgenic proceeding to grab the guy and toss him headfirst into the hallway wall. The amount of force used by this large Transgenic was sufficient enough that the man's head had been buried at least six inches into the wall itself. the rest of the body was hanging, still twitching from the body attempting to send information to a brain that was longer there.

A sense of relief came over X6-209 as two very large hands reached down and pulled her out from the bodies of her friends and teammates towards her feet. She saw the Black combat pants, the old Green single color field jacket with the Manticore logo on the left pocket and the Grey unwashed t-shirt. Then as she looked up into his face, she saw fear grab the back of her feline DNA neck. She was staring into a face of a Nomilie. A Nomilie with over amped Canine DNA, and standing over eight-feet tall. She was more scared than ever, but the Nomilie did something that she would remember. He said, "Path out down, this hallway," The Nomilie gestured then he finished, "then out to outside." X6-209 stared at him for a few seconds as he sniffed the air, as if he was using his amped up Canine DNA to smell for something or someone. The words that came out did not make much sense for X6-209 but it was probably this Nomilie's shorthand, which he said with a grin, "Little Fella". 

The Nomilie looked down at her and gestured for her to escape down the path he had pointed out to her. Then the Nomilie sprinted off down the hallway that she and her friends had come up from. Looking around, and seeing the now dead infiltrators gun on the ground, X6-209 picked it up and ran at top speed getting out of the complex and into the night.

It would be weeks later when she had hooked up with others of her kind that she would see a picture of that same Nomilie again, but it was on a tabloid announcing the "Mutant Menace." But X6-209 still had dreams about why he had saved her life, was it some divine intervention by the Blue Lady or was it fate. She did not know. 

The alarm clock went off and Melfina's eyes opened up to a new day. This was a day that she would be starting work along with her big sister Aspen at their new job. As she got out of her bed, she noticed Shadow was asleep on the couch from performing the night audit at the hotel he worked at. For even a Transgenic three back-to-back nights working and performing the necessary math and deeds needed to keep an upper class, business hotel running was no piece of cake. Even with a Transgenics need for only four hours of sleep, the job tended to be rough, but work for twenty-four hours at a pay rate of six dollars and hour. It was enough money for them to live off of for the time being. But to keep the small three-bedroom apartment that they all were living in. They needed extra income soon or they would be booted out onto the streets. So, Aspen started playing Big sister to Melfina teaching her a crash course in field operations and how to operate in a hostile environment. An environment like they were currently in now. Keeping a low profile was important now and for Melfina for the last two days Aspen and Shadow had trained both her and Jim how to act in public. No Saluting, no saying "yes sir" or "Ma'am" unless in certain situations and act relaxed when spoken too, the more at ease you were the less chance of being discovered. 

Melfina was still scared of Norms due to her past experience with them the night of the fire. The feeling that Melfina had of the way that Aspen behaved around them as if they were invisible. It was probably due to Aspen being an X5 and her being an X6. 

As Melfina walked through the apartment, she could smell Apple-Cinnamon Oatmeal being made by Jim in the Kitchen area. The short four-foot five X8 with his brown eyes and extra fluffy blond hair Transgenic was gladly listening to the radio as he was standing on the small plastic footstool that they found the day that the four of them moved in. Melfina walked over to the counter and pulled up a well-worn wooden stool that looked like it had seen better days and sat down. 

"Jim, how do you feel about Norms?" Melfina said looking him in the eye. Melfina took a hard look at what Jim would say.

"In light of our current situation Mel, I feel that we should just try to blend in. Norms will attack anything they see as a threat to them. So try not to be a threat." Jim said to Melfina, then with a grin he added, "Hey you had your ass saved by a Nomilie, and you were probably more afraid of him than he was of you." 

"Yeah, I guess your right. I'm just still rattled from the attack on command." Melfina said as she hugged herself and rubbed her bare arms from her orange button up undershirt and blue nightgown she wore attempting to take away the chill that was crossing over her. The concept flooded over her, She had to bite the preferable bullet and stay close to Aspen when she went with her to this delivery job. Mel and Aspen had their resumes set and ready from typing them up on a computer at the local library. 

They had to set up and forge some previous references for their jobs. Some of which were done with some embellishments of what they could do. Basic field navigation, good personal skills, computer skills, and some previous references taken out of the local phone book and from the identity brokers handbook. And poof, you have enough background for a job. 

Melfina who was a bio-cyber-data infiltration unit, had used her interface abilities to jack into several systems and solidified their identities more completely. All this was being done within a period of twenty-four hours after Aspen had found the Ad in the local paper. Now all they had to do was to do the interview. 

Melfina could hear the shower running and could tell it was Aspen finishing up and soon it would be her turn, Melfina prayed that there would be at least some warm water left in the compressor system. Melfina hated when Aspen go in the shower first, she had this bad tendency to run the compressor hard and use up all the warm water in the progress. Afterwards the head from the compressor would be almost scalding hot from the head. It got to points where Melfina would take a small bucket into the shower and just fill it up with cold water from the faucet into it so she could take a halfway decent bath. 

When Melfina saw Aspen's X5 feline towel wrapped figure come out of the bathroom. Melfina hopped off the stool she was sitting on and marched on into the bathroom, saying "I hope that you didn't leave the water scalding hot, because I hate it." Then Melfina marched on in, dropping her nightgown to the floor as she shut the door with her foot. Melfina turned around to the mirror as she unbuttoned her undershirt collar so she could pull it over her head. 

Melfina stood there for a moment looking at her naked self in the mirror and examining her flawless frame. No scars, no burn marks, no deformities. She was perfect, too perfect and she was afraid of going into heat in the next month. It scared the crap out of her due to those lab techs putting that bit of electric eel DNA into her genetic cocktail. The eggheads at Manticore had thought about creating a transgenic that could jack into a communication network biologically and take over the system and feed false information into it. She and eleven other Transgenics had been chosen during the planning stages to be turned into cyber units. But when the pulse hit the United States back in Oh Nine, she and the others were dumped into other X6 units and they were always considered outsiders. She had kept hearing the words whispered behind her and the others backs, "Why is she with us." "Oh, I hear that they were too functional to dump into the Basement with the other Nomailies". Melfina was scared and afraid that the X5s she was with now would consider her another one of those freaks. But Aspen had shown her that she was not the only one with gifts and she had clung close to her out of some sort of instinct of understanding. 

Melfina looked herself over and wondered if she looked more X5 like so she could at least feel normal, well at least from a Transgenic point of view. Therefore, Melfina swallowed her pride and got into the shower to bathe, and for once, the water in the shower was not scalding hot but was pleasant for at least 15 minutes.

***

Aspen looked at Melfina as she went into the bathroom and realized that if that girl could control her gift she would be more formable than Eyes Only with his hacks on the telecommunication systems he did every so often. Aspen had always herd rumors that Melfina was part of a special group of Transgenics capable of jacking into anything with a microchip in it and control it by sheer will alone. But after the fire, Melfina had become almost phobic about humans. Aspen on a few occasions had to literally drag her out of the apartment to do a simple errand such as grocery shopping. If Melfina did not find another bio-cyber soon, Aspen was worried that the girl would become more introverted and dangerous to herself. both she and Shadow knew that Melfina needed to become social to at least learn to blend in, and Aspen playing Big sister helped. Now giving Melfina a mission to locate other like her might aid in getting her moral up. 

Aspen soon got out of Mel's way and went into her room to get dressed in something that would at least get them hired. 

***

After the both of them got dressed and headed out to work, Aspen and Mel were heading o the business section of the city, Sector 7. The mood of the environment felt like the place had once been very prosperous in the pre-Pulse years but since the pulse had fallen on hard times. The economics of the era allowed for the businesses that survived to get creative to running their businesses. Some had to become talented in how they hired their employees and some were serious in how they sought out what they believed was right. 

For Aspen, the place looked hard but decent enough to work in. The people in the area looked scruffy and wore tossed on clothing ranging from decent casual to skanky sexy. The tossed on clothes that Aspen and Melfina wore, just made the two of them blend right on in. Camouflage was important for the mission they were going on. The search for other Transgenics.

***

Once on the inside of Jam Pony, Aspen and Melfina they noticed that everyone there was dressed very practically, usually long pants or sweats, t-shirts, long sleeve shirts, jackets, sweatshirts, anything that was casual and comfortable to wear. Right now for the both of them blending into this scene would be much more easier than they thought. Now they had to pass through the interview process. 

The gentleman who had a wireless telephone headset resting semi-lopsided on his head started to come over to them and gave them a stare of "I want to drop to my knees and beg for mercy as you two have hormone crazed heated sex with me." But the look on his face was of pure drooling, male sex urge, mind numb. All Aspen had to say with her subtle charm was, "Hi, me and my friend here are looking for a job an heard that you were hiring, so could you give us an interview?" The charm that Aspen was giving off was starting to concern Mel, X series pheromones should only be used for emergency purposes only, and not for making the future employer almost want to have sex with you at that moment. Then a Latino girl walked over to the man with the headset and smacked him upside his head. The woman looked almost like an X series given her physical build, hell, she could have been an X series and no one would have known. Then the Girl looked at the both of them as if she had noticed something off about both of them as she gave them the details about the job. then Aspen made a slip by accident still going back to her Manticore training. 

"So it is basically a search, locate and drop job each day." Aspen said so bluntly that Aspen could have just screamed the words, "Hi, We are unemployed Transgenic super soldiers looking for a job and trying to blend into humanity, but doing very poorly at. Mel was about to bold out the door, perform an escape, and evade getting out of the area. But Aspen stopped her from bolting out the door. Their new employer "Ronnie, Normal Regan" would be getting them sector passes before the end of the day. Then Aspen and Mel recognized that one of the guys that was attempting to get in their way by attempting to make a pass at them. Before he could speak Aspen put on her hormone charm and stupefied his mind so that he would not "spill the beans" on them. A concept that Aspen had considered almost a bad waste of food. 

But when it came to the two of them splitting up Melfina got stuck with a curly haired black girl named Original Cindy, and Aspen went with Max and Alec by everyone here. Aspen was going along to make sure that she could trust Alec, but knew his reputation as being a troublemaker. Mel did not know how to behave around a civilian, but knew that this was her trial by fire after all the acting that she, Aspen and Shadow had been doing since the escape. Jim got more intense lessons to ensure that he did not reveal what he was too easily, but given his age he would be the fastest to adapt to their new lives. Mel was fearful of what was going to happen next.

As Mel and Aspen were given their bikes to ride, Mel took notice of how Max, Cindy and Alec mounted their mobile contrivances and worked their way out. All it seemed to be was a matter of balance and control to ride it. It took about 15 seconds for the both of them to get feel for riding it from them starting off and then they were on their way.

***

A few hours later as Mel and Cindy were riding around the financial district and Mel had a disturbing feeling that Cindy knew she was a Transgenic. Mel felt that she would be locked up in a cell like a Nomilie. But when Cindy said that she was a homosexual, the fear did not go down. It actually went up. She was more afraid of Cindy now than she had been of any other human before. She was counting the minutes to lunch with Aspen that she could feel safe again. In a little bit after that, Mel would discover that both she and Aspen had stumbled into another group of Transgenics running a similar search pattern for their kind. And they were a little pissed at them for Aspen pheremoneing to the gills one of them. Now they had to do some quick talking to explain what they were doing before Max sought her pet lesbian after them. 

***

Sitting there before Aspen and Melfina, was a very Pissed off Transgenic who wanted some answers from them ASAP. "What is your story." Max said emphasizing each word. 

Aspen and Mel were fearful 

of what was going on, Aspen's plan of finding other Transgenics worked out a little too good. Now Mel had to take the initiative and explain what they were doing.

"I'm a X6" Mel said as she pointed to her self with the fingers of her right hand tapping her chest in the progress almost reactionary. "And Aspen is an X5, and we are just looking for others of our kind, so don't kill us." Mel said with the urge to almost barf her guts out. 

"Ok..." Max said, to the two of them with blunt force. "Now Did the order to go to ground mean nothing to the both of you." Max continued fuming. 

"Listen, Max, Me and Mel here are attempting to find others of our kind, so that we feel not alone. Hell, Max, Mel just wants to find other custom units like her self, so that knows that she is not alone. Max, she does not know if others like her survived the fire. I mean, isn't this why you took up this job. To secretly find others like yourself and Alec here." Aspen said looking into Max's eyes.

"Ya, know Boo. You always told me that you had dreams about finding other like yourself and being able to say, we are leading a normal life." Cindy said giving Max, you secretly have the same idea going through our head everyday look. 

"Okay, you two, here is the deal, how many more are with you?" Max said taking in the scope of what was going on.

"Well there are two others, that are part of our "Unit" you might say. Ah, Shadow, he's an X5, that hook us all together and Jim. He's an X8, Mel found him the night of the fire." Aspen said finally realizing that her idea of finding other Transgenics just hit the wall with the idea that, some of their kind were going to stay "To ground" on a serious level. 

"Aspen, here is the deal. I need you to contact, the other members of the unit you are with and I want to meet with them. Someplace that is neutral for the both of us. There are some people that I have to talk to, and I have to sort some of this out." Max said pondering what was going on. "Lets go through the rest of the day, and get you two settled into your jobs. Judging from our run in with that Steelhead earlier, you two need to learn about laying low while out in public. Mel you definitely need a scarf to cover that Barcode of yours so I'll go with you while Aspen trades off with Cindy, and if she does anything wiggly with Alec, slap her upside the head." Max pointed out to Cindy and Aspen. 

***

Outside the Pizza Shack, Max and Melfina were walking next to one another with their bikes. Mel for some reason felt that Max understood her more, and somehow she felt that Max was in the same boat as she was. Outside of her immediate unit, but had an idea of what she was going through. So, Mel decided to test the water with her. 

"So, ha Max, " Mel said "Tell me, how did you and Alec hook up, and how did Cindy find out about what we are?"

"Well Mel, Me and Alec were breeding partners, and trust me the idea of having sex with that jerk is very untasteful to me." Max said with the idea of keeping the true details of her life out of the mess. 

"Whoa, your an X5, " Melfina said as she looked at Max. "Have you bumped into any other Transgenics other than me and Aspen?"

"Yes, I have bumped into a few. Most I told to go to ground, A groups of X6's and a X8 who I sent to Canada, A pregnant X5, which I sent to Mexico. A pair of aquatic Transgenics that I got away from a Transgenic hunting squad. And finally there is Joshua." 

"Joshua? Who's he?" Melfina said with her ears perked up.

"Well Joshua is a Nomilie, Kind of large, very imposing, but once you get to know him, he kind of grows on you." Max said as she looked down into Mel's eyes still trying to figure out this girl. 

"You know, I was saved by a Nomilie that had been over spiced with Canine DNA the night of the fire." Mel said looking towards Max trying to figure out some of the details that she dropped.

"Hey, tell me what the hair color of the Nomilie that saved your life was." Max said pondering if it was Joshua or Isaac. 

"Well, he had dark blond hair, and for some strange reason he said. "Little Fella", and ..."

"Did you just say, he said Little Fella?"

"Yeah, why?" Mel said as Max stopped in her tracks on the sidewalk they were walking on.

"Because that is Joshua's nickname for me, he kind of gave it to me when I snuck into the basement back at Manticore." Max said remembering the trail that Joshua left in his wake when he performed his search for Sandaman. The entire fiasco had made the Transgenic community front page tabloid news. But, they had found Sandaman's old house and started go through the guy's old personal belongings trying to figure out the Origins of Manticore. 

"Max..." Mel said starting to worry.

"Well, the night of the fire, Joshua ripped the bars off of the window, so that I could get out." Max paused. "I had to loop back and break into command and get everyone out by overriding the security locks on the doors."

"Max, Aspen said that she saw a Transgenic in the hallway by a group of windows that she and a few others were beating at trying to break out." there was a pause for Mel as she came to a realization. "Your her.... Your her..." Mel stopped and just stared as she slowly scuffled her way over to a wall of a storefront they were heading past and slid with her back to the wall into a crouching position. Mel just rocked back and forth, and started to chant: 

"Blessed by the Blue Lady.

The one that make the seizures go away.

The one that watches over us all.

The one that makes the monsters go away.

She who makes the darkness light,

The one that gives happiness.

The one that gave birth to us all.

The one that watches over the place were no one yells at you.

She who let's us play in the fields free."

Max, just stared for the longest time. Had the Blue Lady spread among the other X-Series as it had done with her unit?

"Who told you about the Blue Lady?" Max stated as she knelt over Mel and held her.

"The ones that stayed from the twelve of those who escaped, Ma'am." Mel said with tears coming out of her eyes. 

"Those who give teeth, give her strength, and she gives them hope." Max said, as Mel looked at her and just looked at her in terror.

"You, are a follower?..." Mel could not say any more than those simple words. 

"I am one of the twelve that escaped." Max said looking down and gentling brushing the hair out of Melfina's eyes. The subtle movement of Mel's nose backward and forward as her head gently shook in fear.

"But, how... Your story" Mel said as she tried to digest the information given to her. 

"I escaped with the Twelve back in Oh Nine, but I was later recaptured when that Bitch Renfro killed my older sister Tinga and tried to kill Lydecker." Max said as she leaned against the wall next to Mel and looked out across the street. "Years later as each one of us was living our own lives. That Bitch Renfro, tracked down Tinga, and used her child as bait by infecting him with a nano-virus. In exchange for the cure, for her son. Tinga had to with Lydecker and his goon squad. But Renfro, backstabbed Lydecker too. Instead of re-indoctrination. She took Tinga to a lab and preceded to have her lab boys take her apart." Max stopped the pain of remembering Tinga's body in that extraction tube having the very life sucked out of her one milligram at a time made her start to break down in tears. The silence between the two of them could be understood, they were emotionally scared by what had happened at Manticore.

"Myself, my older brother Zack, by kid brother Zane and by baby sister Syl. Decided that Manticore should pay for what they did. No more dead Transgenics, no more soldiers. Manticore had to die. So we got together and blew up that accursed Genetics' lab and sent it express to Hell." Max paused, gritting her teeth. "The mission went south after the lab blew up. The second part of the plan was to get everyone out and get them hidden, and Lydecker would help with that when he saw what Renfro had done to one of his kids by giving the order to go to ground. Once hidden we could not be found and Manticore would never harm anyone again. I wasn't expecting to run into a X7 clone of myself and being shot along with my brother Zack." Max paused again and Mel took a deeper look at her this time.

"They were attempting to re-indoctrinate you, when the fire broke out, didn't they, Max." Mel said realizing that Max had been responsible for a lot of things that she could not blame her for. Anyone that was pushed as she was, would do what she probably did. "So, you came here to Seattle in hope that you could locate others like you form your old unit?"

"Well that was my dream about ten years ago, but now, I feel that I am responsible for all of our kind that I let loose on the world." Max said taking a deep breath and letting it out in slow puff. 

"So when you saw me and Aspen, causing trouble for Alec and the way that I was Nervous around Cindy pretty much give us away."

"Yeap. that pretty much sums it up for you Mel." Max said as she got up off of the ground and helped Mel on up. "Hey could you hold off on telling Aspen and your pals that an Oh-Nine escapee. Until I get to know Jim and Shadow. So, Tell me what they are like as we head back to Jam Pony for some more Packages." 

***

The previous night's audit had gone like hell. Literally. But for Shadow coming in from the long night and wanting to have a good few hours of sleep and put off his worries till he woke up gave him a sense of peace. One of the few things he could enjoy in life. For Shadow during his entire life, the most stressful experience that he had to endure was being chased by a really pissed off group of X7's that wanted to kick his ass after he gave one of the "Black-eyes Mutes" a noogie. How the heck did he know that they had a hive mind, and the fact that little twerp shared that experience with the rest of his unit and the resulting event was him being beat up by those twelve half-pints. 

The week and a half that he spent in the med ward after having both of his legs broken at the calf, a dislocated shoulder, a broken nose, and three cracked ribs. When the rumors of that an X5 got his ass kicked by a member of the new X7 series, well it was originally thought the X5 was just careless. Then it got out that the X7 series considered the X5 series the same was the X5 series treated the Nomilies, as expendable... 

As Shadow walked over to the futon bed where he slept and started pulling his dress white shirt off, and his belt. Leaving the remainder of his clothes on as his field training had taught him. Be ready to move out at a moments notice. This feeling of being ready to move out at moments notice had still been with him since the night of the fire, but he had taken his time to acclimate himself to laying low and blending in with the rest of society. 

As Shadow's head hit the pillow he started to remember things about his life prior to the fire, the good times that he had and the nights that he would spend with "Jade" as they hid out in the vent ducts as children and as teenagers. Jade had this beauty with her soft brown skin, silky black hair, and those Jade green eyes that could show curiosity about the simple things in life. Even the occasional cockroach that would drag itself along the vents searching for food. For Shadow, Jade -- or X5-543 as she was known -- had the loveliest smile that could bring about compassion in even the hardest day. One day when Shadow and Jade were in their teens, about 15 or 16 in age, they crawled around the vents finding their way to the other side of the compound and heard this noise that was almost rhythmic and haunting. Off and on, they heard it and it was almost musical, not like the music that the lab techs would play or some of the guards would listen too wither. It was as if the sounds had meanings underneath it, almost like a code:

Hunnnicc, hmmmmmbrrr ic, thummm, swellll,k urrmmmm, huranics, uhnnnn.

The sounds would always vary in length and in time, and strength. Off and on this sound would ways reflect a mood of someone or something making it. One night Jade and Shadow made their way towards one of the vents and saw a group of Transgenics that were in a tank swimming around, there also seemed to be a lid on it keeping them in. They seemed to be the same age as them and the sound was coming from their tank. One of them looked up and looked into the vent. She had white skin and dark hair with her dark swimsuit that she wore, and they noticed that she had two white slits by her front midriff. Shadow and Jade used their sight to look through the water, and event with the distortion from the water's surface, there looked like there were slits, gills if they were right and she just gave a shocked look at them as she brought her head to the surface and just stroked in place with her arms and legs and smiled at them she gave the symbol with her hands that meant "Friend." Jade gave the reply back "Friend" as well and gestured for more of the song she was doing. and for several minutes they just listened to her sing her song just for them, and they gently held hands. Images of the stars at night and the Moon rising high in the sky, gave them reasons to keep going even on the hardest days. That encounter was kept secret for the two times that visited her before Jade and Shadow got assigned to individual dorm units and it would be weeks till they saw each other again and that was only the training field for exercises and outdoor operations. 

That night that they had found the serene in her tank put hope into them. Then after the "renegade X5s" blew up the genetics lab, would Jade and Shadow meet each other again, this time as breeding partners. During those times that they had together, weren't not so much making love with each other or exploring each others bodies with nervous fervor as learned where to touch each other where it felt soft and caring , and infinity would claim both of them and they would become a world upon them selves.

During those times, jade and Shadow would attempt to duplicate the song the girl that they saw in the tank sang to them during those nights that they spent with her. they always thought of her wondering what had happened to her.

Since the night of the fire, Shadow and Jade had gotten separated from one another once they had gotten outside and he had hoped that Jade was somewhere and that someday he would find her. In the back of his mind, he hoped that Aspen with her gift of finding people and things would guide him in him finding her. 

As Shadows thoughts drifted back towards the other times at Manticore from the seven combat missions he went on, including one that he went with a smart ass Transgenic, designated X5-494 who ran the Manticore Black Market, where if you wanted it, he would get it. But on the mission that they were sent on, their job was to eliminate an arms dealer selling advanced hardware to the highest bidder. All 494 would talk about during the mission was his next coming score that he had. All Shadow wanted to do was bury his head in his copy of Medical Weekly that was talking about the new plagues of the Millennium, the Hanta Virus outbreak in Los Angeles, and the Measles epidemic in Seattle. Shadow knew that there was scum in this world and it was his job to protect the world from it. Every once in a while 494 would act strange, all he had heard that 494 had recently gotten out of psyche eval for some condition he had. Given the mission they were on, the guys in tactical thought that it was a good mission to see how 494 would behave in the field and 424 was backup in case 494 became a head case. 

The mission went according to plan. The target was eliminated with a broken neck, but instead of being crates of weapons, it turned out to be medical supplies after he broke into all of creates to view the continents. Realizing what these people were spreading human misery, he asked 494 to help hide the cash in an account so he could get to it later to make donations to hospitals that needed the money to buy the medicine they needed to keep people alive. X5-494 took a commission of 15 percent and put it into an account of his own. They kept both of these accounts secret from their superiors and later after the fire he accessed the account to get his unit into hiding. 

During the debriefing his commanders said it was weapons even after he even protested stating that the goods were medical supplies and that was a good four months before the fire. He had the feeling that there was something more going on and since the fire, he had the feeling that the Infiltrators had something to do with both events. He had the feeling that the subversive Eyes Only might have the answers that he sought due to the reliable information he had given on the Mutant Death squad that was searching the city for their kind. Now all Shadow had to do was wait for Aspen and Mel to get back in and give their report of what they found during their first day at work. 

***

Buzz me on any questions, comments, and story ideas?

I'm currently in the progress of writing Ch 5 of the story and it is about Aspen's and Jim's past as well as some more information about the "Party of X5" gang. Joshua will be in it, the Gills, Rain & the T-Bloods and Asha. In addition, Melfina will give Eyes Only a run for his money as the Lady Chimera. 


	3. Ch 5 Setting of Characters Pasts Pt 2

Hidden Danger Crouching Cat.

By Shannon Hearn

The characters of Dark Angel are owned by Twentieth Century Fox Television and Cameron Eglee productions. All other characters are of my creation.

Chapter 5: X-series reunion, Eyes Only, and Lady Chimera

For Logan Cale the work that he was doing at his computer terminal was life or death. Well at least his life as Eyes Only. 

"Damned it, you little piece of shit.... Don't eat the file," he was begging the system, "don't eat the file...." Then there was a very audible beep from the computer as the web page that he was reading on the recent police activity in sector three on a serial criminal that was hitting police cruisers and painting a pig snout on the hoods of the vehicles and was not seen even after a hover drone recorded the incident. Then the screen went straight to blue and the file was lost. 

"Shhiiiiiittttttttt." Logan screamed at the top of his lungs as the file was lost and his connection to the Internet was lost. "Well, the mighty Eyes Only is like any other person. He has to deal with a lousy Internet connection, when the traffic is high. Oh Well, time to go to plan "B", Well Matt...." Logan said to himself. "... It might take a while, but I'll help you nail the guy that tagged your cruiser. It is the least of the things I can do for you, after all you have done for Eyes Only." Logan was working on getting the hover drone video log on the incident and he contacted one of his friends as he went over to pick up the phone and dialed speed number five.

"Asha... This is Logan, I need a favor from you, you know that friend of yours on the police force that has been feeding you intel on corrupt cops, well I need you to get some hover drone footage on who is tagging the police cars around the twelfth precinct." There was a pause for a moment as Asha debated what to say to Logan. Then she continued' and Logan answered. "OK Asha, I'll see what Eyes Only can do for you in trying to figure out who killed your father. OK talk with you soon." Logan said as he hung up the phone, wondering how Asha had become the Supreme Commandant of S1W at such a young age. But this tagger's technique was such that many in the Police Department thought that the perp was a transgenic with some sort of stealth capability, and Logan was thinking that it could be a transgenic with a more advanced stealth capability like the one Brainic had used before his death. Logan and Asha had felt for the "Big Guy" due to the extra large X-series girth made him very noticeable in a crowd, if anyone would notice the guy or remember if he was in the crowd. Brainic's capability to be a raw data crunchier/ Transgenic General made him an individual that Logan thought, might if he had survived he would have become a powerful ally in his war on corruption. 

After Brainic's death and the Gill Girl incident, Asha had become tolerable of Transgenic-kind. The fact that Asha stopped seeing Max as a sort of creature but as an individual after Max put her life on the line to save all of S1W. Though there was still tension between the two, the "Furry little friends" jokes had come to an end, though the "touch Logan and die" situation had still to resolve itself, as Joshua had put it, "The virus bitch had to go down." 

The battle to fix a broken world would continue, but for now Logan had to fix lunch. He had to figure out if the new crisis that was arising was either some transgenic causing trouble or someone with a grudge against the cops. 

"Just give me a super villain, or a major bad guy to deal with God for the coming days and I'll just be fine." Logan said as he entered the kitchen and opened the fridge and pulled out some carrots. 

***

As Max and Melfina were riding their bikes back to Jam Pony, there was noticeable police disturbance and there was at least eight cops trying to deal with a group of street kids, and one of them had grabbed a cop by the shirt and had tossed him through a window with one arm. It would have been noticeable like any other scene from Cops but the window was at least 40 feet away, instead of 5 feet. Then Max recognized something that she thought she would not have noticed except that he had a very gothic look to him. Then unexpectedly came this off red 1978 Shark with gold Gaelic symbols on the side, which spun around and the guy leaped into the car as it sped off nearly colliding with two squad cars in the process. 

Max sighed, as she used her sight to zoom in on the license plate, The T-Bloods were back to their usual chaotic mischief. It looked like she had to knock some sense into those kids again. Weeks earlier Max had a run-in with a group of street kids who had been given the powers of a Transgenic when an amped-up custom model of her kind with custom modified blood. Marrow the Transgenic Vampire had used his blood to gene-splice these poor kids into creatures to do his bidding. But when Max had found out that this asshole was brainwashing these kids to be his own personal Manticore shock troops, she took it upon herself to set these kids right. Ironically it was one of Marrow's own followers named Rain who had discovered the truth about what Marrow was and decided to stop him by not enduring the splicing procedure again. Rain had decided to take her stand and not take her medicine and had exposed Marrow for the fraud he was and Max Impelling the jerk did not help his ego. Since then Max was worried that these kids would expose her kind, but for the most part, Rain and her cohorts had kept low, till now. 

Melfina just stared at the scene unfolding before her. 

"Max... Those were Transgenics. Why are they doing what they did so publicly?" Melfina said as she looked at a very fuming Max. 

"Mel, remember how pissed I was when I found out that Aspen was causing trouble when she seduced Alec with her hormones, well it is time that I whooped someone's ass into shape." Max said as she glanced over to a nearby payphone and walked over to it. 

"Max, what are you doing?" Melfina said as Max dumped in her seventy-five cents and dialed a number from memory. There was a pause as Max waited for someone to pick up at the other end then she spoke.

"Hey, Logan. It's Max. Listen, I had a run in with a few of my kind and Rain and her pals are up to their mischief again. So, I need you to contact Dr. Shookar and bring Joshua with you to the church that the T-Bloods have been using." There was a pause as someone on the other end of the phone replied.

"Does Alec, know what is going on. I thought that after that Incident with Marrow, Rain and her pals would have laid low." The voice said on the other end. 

"I know, Logan. I have had one of those days, and trust me; next to a nuclear explosion going off in the next five minutes in my sneakers, things will be tame. Listen I am bringing some friends with me." 

"What type of friends, Max?" Logan said.

"Like me, as in the tattoo department, Logan." Max said to an aghast Logan Cale. "So, could you take care of what I said, Okay." Max said as she hung up the payphone, and turned to get on her bike. 

"Max, where are you going?" Melfina said as she realized that Max was a leader of a larger unit that she and Aspen had anticipated to find. "Max, listen, tell me what the heck is going on? I'm scared of what just transpired, but does it have to pertain to this Marrow, guy that your friend Logan was talking about?" Mel said as she rushed at full speed to get in front of Max on her bike. 

"Yes Mel, it does." Max said, as she looked Mel straight in the eyes. "Lets just say, you, me and the rest of our brothers and sisters from Manticore are not the only amped up beings running around Seattle." 

"What????" Mel yelped, and went bug-eyed before Max. 

"I'll fill you in on the way to Rain and her friends hideout. Before the Cops get there." Max put as she and Mel peddled their bikes to the abandoned church that the T-Bloods used as their layer. 

***

As Alec, Aspen, and OC, were riding their bikes back to Jam Pony. There was tension between them. As Alec's pride and his ego took a beating, having to be protected by Nubian Queen Amazon from a Polynesian Enchantress Siren capable to lure males to their doom just by her look and smell. Alec's record of accomplishment with other Female Transgenics was turning out miserably. Being kicked in the nuts by his breeding partner, going after a sea nymph who happened to be married, and now with the enchantress that was becoming a pain in Max's but. Well this day was driving him nuts. Just give him an ordinary human girl that he could do a one-night stand with and bring her to full-blown sexual excess. Well, this was not a day Alec would have liked to have had continue. Given the way that it was going for him it would start to turn eulogy. He needed a distraction and OC was giving Aspen the hungry look of, I want to have hot-crazy monkey love with that girl in a shower. After what Aspen had done, having OC around being a bodyguard for him and his manhood was very humiliating. Then Alec's Cell phone buzzed, and Cindy and Aspen looked at him as he unclipped it from his side-strapped backpack that he wore and opened up. 

"This is Alec." Alec said with less exuberance than he usually said. Then he heard Logan's voice on the other end.

"Alec, its Logan, Max need your help, it looks like the T-Bloods are up to trouble." Logan put to a stunned Alec. 

"What the Heck are you talking about, Logan?" Alec said into his phone with annoyance. 

"A few weeks ago. Max helped a few street kids who had been fallen upon by a vampire like transgenic, well to make a long story short, she slapped some sense into them and impelled the guy after attempting to turn these kids into his own personal cannon fodder. Alec, I need you to head by your place and get your car. Max will need some backup on this. I'm on my way to get Joshua at his place. So listen, when you get to your place, I'll call again with the address." Logan said as he ended his call leaving Alec. 

"Alec, what's up h' boy. You look like, someone had dropped an anvil on your ass and wants to take it back again and drop it your head." Original Cindy said as she glanced at Alec with the "Uh hummm" look that she was famous for when she was about to yell someone's name at her beckon and call. 

"It's Max, she has had a run in with some Transgenics who are causing some problems." Alec said as things started to set in for him. 

"Is Mel alright???" Aspen said out of worry. The Big Sister instincts had taken over for her concern for Melfina. 

"Logan wants me go to my place and contact him on his cell, of where to get the address of where Max is at." Alec said as he looked around at the street sign that was before him. Quickly calculating the quickest route to his place and took off. 

"Hey Alec. If you are going to see Max, I am coming along as well. Mel is my baby sister and if anything happens to her, I'll feel responsible for bringing her along to work today." Aspen said quickly rushing after Alec of her bike leaving Original Cindy behind.

"Yah, know, Go'd old Boo's life gets more interesting everyday, and Original Cindy thinks that I better go over to Josh's place and intercept old Money Bags to get to the bottom of this mess."

***

As Max and Melfina rode their bikes through the streets of Seattle until they got to the old church that housed the T-bloods gang. The old church had been abandoned for years even before the Pulse had hit. The place looked like it had been through a lot of roughness as the old stained glass windows which still showed Jesus and his thirteen apostles at the last supper showed the dirt and grim on them from the years of lack of cleaning. 

Max got off her bike wearing her white jump pants and her black close curve revealing t-shirt made it seem that she was just a person checking out the place. Max had worked her way through the front door and into the lobby of the church where it looked like it had seen some decent renovations. Melfina walked up right behind Max and looked around the church as they entered the main chapel, which looked like it had been turned into a large living area with couches, tables, chairs, and cabinets. The place looked like one huge interconnected dormitory lobby, all that was missing was a large circle porker table and a pool table in the place. 

"Max, how many of these T-Bloods live here?" Melfina said breaking into a defensive stance. 

"Oh, about fifteen to twenty-five." Max said as she glanced around and looked upward to the upper pews where the T-Bloods slept. 

"And they are all amped up like us, with all of our capabilities." Melfina said going into full tactical alert. 

"Max," A voice rang out from above. Max and Mel looked up to see a young woman with red hair looking down at them. "What are you doing here?" The worried look on the girl's face started to grow. "Oh, my God. Marrow is back, isn't he?" There was a pause as the pain on her face started to grow. 

"No Rain, I came down here to talk about what happened to your guys car. I saw it after I saw a few of you guys throw around a few police officers in front of a convenience store." Max said trying to calm the girl down. 

"What???" Rain said as she looked at Max with curiosity. "What do you mean, which car are you talking about?" 

"Rain, could you get down here, it is a little hard to talk to you like this." Max said looking at Rain.

"I'll be down in just a sec." Rain said as she disappeared for a second as she looped around to the stairs so that she could get down to the first floor of the chapel. 

"Max" Melfina said looking towards Max with growing worry on her face. "How much do you know about Rain here, I mean is she one of these T-bloods?" 

"Yes Mel, Rain is a T-blood. To make a long story short, Marrow, one of Manticore's custom projects, decided when he was out in the world he decided to pick up the human myth of Vampires, and the sub-culture that surrounds this ideology. Once Marrow took this mythology, he started to use his biological capabilities as a walking blood bank to start Gene-splicing Street kids like Rain and her friends into creatures that possess all the capabilities of a Transgenic.

"I only had a run in with them when Rain and a few of her pals decided to go on a crime spree, and decided to rob a club that Me and Original Cindy were going to for a girls night out and party like it was 2099. " Max paused as she remembered the events of that night with all its wigginess. "Well as OC was about to talk with her friend what was going to let us in, Rain and her pales crashed out the front door with the loot they had stolen from the ticket booth and the bar. As they slammed their way pass the bouncers that they threw around like rag dolls, Cindy caught a glimpse at their barcodes. Feeling responsibility for letting everyone out of the Manticore Zoo, I thought it was a group of X5s or X6s that decided to go out on a mischievous crime spree and I took it upon myself to knock some sense into their heads to tell them to go to ground and stay hidden." At that time Rain had come down the stairs and entered the room wearing her black leather jacket that had metal studs covering the back shoulder blades, a off pink waitress uniform with a white trim around it, put with a pair of white tennis shoes she looked very eclectic, just like Aspen and her had dressed earlier that morning. 

"Max ran into Lida, a friend of mine and someone who thought that she could leave the gang." Rain stopped and paused for a moment as tears started to come to her eyes. "Lida got it through her head ht Marrow had us addicted to something which gave us our enhanced capabilities. 

"Me and a few of the others went looking for her and we got her back, thinking that she would die without Marrow's help. As we are sneaking Lida out of the hospital, we have a run in with Max. I thought I was a bad ass, she tossed me around like I was nothing and took me down in all but ten seconds." Rain looked at Melfina, and was wondering why Max had brought this girl with her then she continued her story. "When I was being held by Max and her friend Logan, they told me about what she was and why she was looking into the T-bloods. Lets just say this simply, she did not like the idea of Marrow using us as his own personal troops against humanity." Rain had started to cry right there, "Marrow killed Lida, as if she was a broken toy and I was to be next, till I got through the seizures that I was having and confronted Marrow in front of the others with the truth. As Marrow was about kill me, Max had used her powers to intercept him and impale him through a candle stand, but before we realized what was going on, Marrow had disappeared." 

"Rain, I didn't know, Max that is why you were so pissed at me and Aspen when we waltzed into your life, you have taken responsibility for letting us out into the world and any damage that we do, you feel that you have to fix it." Melfina said looking at Rain with sympathy instead of the raw terror, she had of Normals a few minutes ago, now she knew that she was not the only being that had been mucked up by Manticore. 

"Max, with your friend here, I know that you have normal human friends but how does she know so much about Manticore." Rain said looking at Melfina as she worked her way over to once of the couches. 

"Rain, Melfina is one on my people, I think that she has been scared of normal humans since the fire at Manticore so, you're sort of an enigma for her." Max said. "The main reason that I am here is that Me and Mel over there saw your guys Gold Shark with some enhanced capability and I was thinking were you guys up o anything today pertaining to petty theft or smash and grab." 

"No Max, me and the rest of the T-Bloods have been laying low, to protect ourselves and your people. Though about the topic about the Shark is that last I heard, "Brams and Lucy last had it out, but when they went out for grocers, they found it was stolen. So whoever has it is probably the ones you are looking for." Rain said as Max looked her up and down at the uniform she was wearing. "You seen that a good chunk of us had gotten jobs, and laid low like you asked." 

"Why have you guys stayed here?" Max said looking at the gothic girl. 

"Max, the main reason that me and the others have not left the church and have stuck together is that If Marrow comes back, we all feel that there is safety in numbers." Rain said as she moved around to where Melfina was sitting on the couch. "Max, could you tell me about Mel, I mean, I heard that she was one of your people from all the way upstairs." 

"Well, Rain, I am still finding out details about her." At that moment, Logan and Joshua walked into the chapel. Joshua was wearing his motocross helmet to conceal his bestial features. The way that Mel had just shut down as she did earlier when she had learned that Max was the one of the twelve and set them free during the fire. Now Mel had started to lock up again to the point where she introverted her existence into herself. 

"Little Fella, Logan said to come with him, and that you needed help." Joshua said as he walked forward with Logan into the T-bloods living area. Then Joshua noticed something as he sniffed the air around him. "X6 with eel and X5 with lizard. Little Fella, I smell other X's." 

"Joshua, what are you talking about?" Max said looking towards Joshua with curiosity on her face. 

"Uh, Max, your friend Josh is acting like he can tell what you are." Rain said, "I mean I didn't know that you had lizard in you?"

"Rain, I have Cat in my cocktail," Max said to rain and looking at Mel as concern started to fall into her face. Then max looked at Joshua, "Hey Joshua could you come over here, and take off your helmet." 

"Max, what do you want? I might need your help here in a second. Remember the night of the fire, did you help any X series Transgenics. 

"Yes, I did Little Fella." Joshua walked over to the couch that Melfina was and took his helmet off. About that time, another T-blood walked into the chapel and saw Joshua from behind. 

"Hey Rain, what is going on," the suddenly the T-Blood looked right into Josh's face. The new guy and Rain just stood there, not moving. They stared at Josh and his canine features before them. Then very gently, Joshua sat down by Melfina and gently stroked her face with his large muscular hands, wiping away the tears from her face. Then something happened, Mel and Joshua linked in their minds and they entered the Gray room together.

***

The sound of heartbeats pulsed with a constant rhythm and the soft silk drapery and gentle smells of sweet flowers, milk and baked doughnuts and cookies filled the air. Melfina found herself dressed in a white gown like shirt that had flowing white sleeves and curve conforming main shirt section that as body hugging tight. She had on Blue leggings and soft violet blue deck shoes. She glanced around, and there was this large imposing muscular man with long dark blond hair. His clothes were simple blue jeans, an overly large green long sleeve t-shirt that had paint spatters on it all along the lower sections of it. He wore an urban gray combat fatigues jacket that bore that Manticore, Lion logo on it. 

"Where am I?" Melfina said, trying to make sense of the situation she was in. Then she saw the man's face start to change from Human to that of a Dog-Man. However, the eyes remained the same. 

"You are in the safe place." He said to her as he slowly walked over to Melfina and touched her on the face. 

""Who are you?" Melfina said to the Dog-man. 

"I am Joshua, Father made me first." Images flashed through Melfina's mind of illusions and of physical pain as a child. Melfina remembered being strapped into a chair and being forced to learn something under torture. 

"I'm Melfina, hey there are images flashing before me, is it the same thing for you Joshua?"

"Yes they are, and I see them too." At that moment, Melfina witnessed beast creatures ranging from rats boys, panther women, a howling Dog-boy calling out for his father, ape creatures, lizard men and women. The mix of individuals and nightmares and beasts drew up to the moment of the night of the Manticore fire. 

"Melfina, I am here to help you. Not everyone is bad. There are good people out there." 

"Your a Nomailie... you live in the basement." Melfina said backing away from Joshua. 

"Yes, I used to live in the basement, now I live in the world." Joshua said looking at her with a look of caring in his gentle eyes.

"Why did you save me the night of the fire?" Mel said as she started to cry, then the images of her two dead friends appeared before her and Joshua. They walked towards her, and knelt down on the floor, and they sketched a symbol into the ground. That of an upside-down Hyppciticus symbol. 

"You were in need." Joshua said to her. 

"Because you were needed." said the ghosts of the late X6s. " You are needed to stop those who use this symbol for evil. All of those who have died, Normals, Transgenics and another group you will learn about in the year to come." 

"Why me?" Melfina screamed pleading for answers. "Why me? Why should I have lived when so many had died? Why you two have to die?" 

"We do not know..." They said. "Only the Blue Lady knows and you need to live your life to tell all that know of you and of our kind. We have lived, and will live on for those who remember us."

"I am alone."

"You are not. Open your eyes. You will never be alone. You have friends that you can lean on when you are in need, and will be with you in your heart always." They all said to Melfina then Mel was hurtled back to reality.

***

As Rain just stood there viewing the scene unfold before her, all that she thought was: "was this a normal day for Max?" Mutant Vampires and now Werewolves, what was this girl up to when she wasn't out slapping sense into others of her kind? 

"Mel, are you alright?" Max said to Melfina as she started to blink normally again. 

"Yeah, I'm alright." Melfina said as she looked at Joshua with wonder and fear. 

"The night of the fire Joshua, when you found me. You knew that I was afraid of you, but why did you leave me to find Max?" Melfina said starting to view Joshua not as the monstrous beast that she was taught to fear as a child if she was bad. Now she viewed Joshua as a person that saved her life as being the same as her, just a bit larger and different in his characteristics as she was in her capabilities from the other X6s. 

"You were closer to the exit than she was, I had to get everyone out, and the fire was everywhere." Joshua said explaining his actions. "When I got a whiff that Little Fella had gotten out, I left then."

"Joshua," Rain said curiously moving to the two of them, "why just the hell just happened between the two of you just now?" 

"The white room." Melfina said.

"The White room, the White Room. What the hell is the White Room" Rain said flinging her arms around like crazy, then putting both of her hands on her temples of her head. 

"The only place that we actually felt safe while we lived at Manticore. Think of it as the Transgenic equivalent of a Vulcan mind meld." Max said to Rain. 

"Uh, Max does that mean the time that I was in the hospital near death, you did that with me." Logan said to Max as the shock started to come into play. 

"Hey Max, Logan are you guys in here?" From the most annoying sound of Alec's voice. 

"Mel, Max are you in here?" Said a concerned Aspen who as she saw Joshua's face, blurred at full speed towards Melfina between the furniture of the lower level of the living area of the church and landed her hands around Joshua's throat. 

"Get away from her or I swear I will hand your head to back to you on a sliver platter." Aspen said in a crouching position on the couch. 

"Aspen let go of him. He's a friend, he's the one that saved me the night of the fire." Melfina said getting between Aspen and Joshua as she pried off Aspen's hands off Joshua's neck. "Aspen, Max knows him and Rain and the rest of the others she bumped into. Aspen, we hit the preferable "Mother load"." 

Aspen looked over at Rain, Max, Joshua, Alec, and the guy just standing there. "Vampires, Werewolves, Mutants, heck all we're missing is a cyborg here."

"Logan, Cyborg." Joshua said looking at the guy. 

"So, um what about telling us where to find Bram's and Lucy."

"Well, they just got jobs at some bar called, Crash." Rain said. 

"Well, It looks like that Mel and Aspen are about to meet the crash point from work." Max said as she looked at a feline-est Aspen moving away from Joshua as she fell off the couch and onto the floor.

***

Aspen and Melfina entered the apartment that they shared and saw Shadow and Jim cooking in the kitchen and waltzed over to meet with them. 

"Hey Shadow, Jim. We hit the jackpot and found some Transgenics." Aspen said bouncing over towards the counter getting a whiff of the chili that was being cooked up. 

" That was fast. Well, what did you girls find today?" Shadow said looking at the two girls with growing interest. 

"Well, we were not the only ones running a search pattern for others of our kind." Melfina butted in. "Aspen kind of pheromone one of them by accident when we were out on a run. Till Max found out, she's the other one we found and she suck her pet lesbian after us, and then we learned about another group that Max and Alec have been keeping their eyes on. I mean the entire day has been exciting." 

"Yeah, so about how many are these two in charge of?" Shadow said dipping his spoon into the chili to have a taste. 

"About twenty-five to thirty Transgenics ranging from a Nomilie to some human modifies called T-bloods." Aspen said as Shadow coughed hard with the spoon just leaving his mouth. 

"What is it Shadow, surprised at the number that we found in one day?" Aspen said leaning over to gently tap Shadow on the shoulder. 

"No, its not that, all I just need to add some water to the Chili sauce." He said trying to hide the fact that the cough concealed his shock at the number of Transgenics that Aspen and Melfina had found. 

"Well, tell me about them." Shadow said moving away from the stovetop and towards the sink to get a cup of water to add to the chili he was making to dilute the mixture down some. 

"Well, I was thinking that I introduce you to them to night, we are meeting Max and Alec at a bar that the employees from work hang out at tonight." Aspen said looking towards Shadow with a growing sense that he was weary about this meeting. 

"Melfina, I need you to go with Jim tonight and keep an eye on things here, if either me or Aspen do not check in a few hours, I want you to evacuate from this premises and go to ground, understood." Shadow said looking into Melfina's young face. 

"Jim, I need you and Mel to get your supplies ready, just in case Aspen and I don't come back, alright." 

"Will, do Shadow." Jim said taking over the stirring of the Chili. 

"It looks like I'll be going out tonight." Shadow said as he looked in the cabinet drawer by the sink and pulled out a handgun that he had salvaged from the night of the fire. 

***

The bar Crash was one of those eclectic places that had sprung up in the city of Seattle and other cities across the nation. The feel of beer, music and pool tables all connected to draw in a mixed assortment of people into it. The current clientele of the bar consisted of bike messengers, rebels, criminals, undercover cops, steelheads, Eyes Only informants, and transgenic mutants. The current effect of the people in the bar tonight was to mainly relax from a tense day at work. For Shane Shadow, it was a situation ripe for ambush. 

Shadow who was wearing a pair of blue jeans, old white sneakers, a dark blue long sleeve thick t-shirt that said X-Men: Mutant Academy with a circled X on it and his old white Manticore combat fatigue jacket, Shadow just looked like a regular guy in the place. Aspen who had changed into some comfortable clothes went from the sweats that she had worn earlier that day to a pair of tight black pants and a green artic polar under shirt with a pair of combat boots on. 

The effect of the two of them entering the room was subtle and understandable. They just were two people entering a bar so that they could relax, but in this case, they were there to meet with Max and Alec. 

"So tell me what are Max and Alec like? Are they standard field operations specialists, they freelance, or are they black-ops?" Shadow said to Aspen as they moved toward the bar. 

"Well from what I learned today is that they are a mixture of all the above." Aspen said as she searched the crowd for Max and Alec then she located Alec by the bar stools talking to some Blond with short hair that almost looked like an X-series in facial features, but the body type was all wrong wearing a purple long-sleeve t-shirt. "Hey, that's Alec over there by the bar talking with that blond in the purple shirt." Aspen pointed out to Shadow. 

"Well, I'll be, dammed to the bottom level of Taderis." Shadow said aloud. "X five, Four-Nine-Four, that black-market miscreant made it out of Manticore in one piece." Aspen looked at Alec then at Shadow by the pattern on his face of raw contempt. 

"You know him," Aspen said point over to Alec. 

"Yeah, I pulled a few missions with him over the years. The last one that I did was after he got of a year in Psych eval." 

"Whoa, Alec was in Psych eval for a year. What the heck did he do to get into Psych eval for a year?" Aspen said as her eyes started to get large with worry 

"Botched a mission, that nearly got him killed and another year was spent in psych ops after it was learned that his twin was mentally unstable and had killed several people." 

"Shit..." Aspen said, "So Alec is Freelance." 

"With his operations background the guy is slick as snot. Given his mental problems, he is good at creating false data and identities for shadow accounts." Shadow said looking over with his old combat buddy. "I wonder what this Max is like, after Meeting with Alec. Do you see her anywhere?"

"Yeah, she is by the pool tables with the blond guy with the glasses and the black girl with the "A" tower of brown curly hair in the backroom area." Aspen said pointing out with her thumb towards the mirror behind the bar. 

"Well it looks like it is time that I meet with Max and learn about what she is up to." Shadow said as he walked over to Alec with Aspen hanging on his arm. As Aspen walked over to see Alec talking with this girl that he was with. 

"So Asha, you know that I have this thing with talking with people and getting what I want." Alec said. "If you need anything from me or my contacts I will put you in touch with them." 

"Yeah, Alec, some of your best work that he has done can be seen with how he helped me." Shadow said to Alec and the blond he was with. "So how have things been since we last met, about six to seven months ago." 

"Aspen, you didn't tell me that you knew..."

"Shadow, Shane Shadow's, I'm an old friend of Alec's back during his old Infantry Black-market days."

"Alec, you mean that He is like you from your old "Army" days." Asha said with worry getting behind him with a defensive stance. 

"Yes me and Aspen used to be in the same military "unit" back in the day, and Boy did Alec used to run some scams that were phenomenal especially with getting me those medical journals that I like to read so much." Shadow said to Alec looking him in his eyes. "Why don't we meet with Max and her Pal Logan, and let get a start of what is going on." 

"Logan and Max. What is going on here Alec?" Asha said as the facts started to spin into a wild wackiness that was limed in it perceptions, but broad as hell in its repercussions.

"We've meet Joshua, and thinks for helping Melfina out with her problem." Aspen said to Alec with pride. "I thought about introducing Shadow to Max and Logan and see about combining our skills together." Shadow said moving over towards Alec and tapping him on the shoulder and led him to the backroom where Max and Logan were. 

***

Standing at the pool table allowed for Max, Logan and Original Cindy to have a casual conversation that was not work related. Sketchy who with his three day-old growth of beard, ragged clothing of sweat pants and t-shirt blended him into the world that he lived. Right now, Sketchy was bringing in at least two pitchers of beer into the back room and from the circumstances that were occurring on the pool table; Logan was beating the crap out of Alec with his skills as a Pool Shark. 

As Aspen and Shadow entered the backroom, the battle on the Pool table was becoming pure mortal combat. Alec, Asha, Shadow and Aspen who had entered the room, were watching the game with growing interest. 

"Now, I put the ten ball in the center pocket and the sixth ball in the corner." Logan said spinning his pool cue around like a martial artist Bo in a Hong Kong action film. 

"Well Mister Money bags has gone Jet Li with his stick." Original Cindy said towards Logan's Pool game with Max. Then she noticed Aspen walking towards them with a guy on her arm, the standard normal white guy with brown almost black hair. Given the way that Alec and Asha were walking towards them it looked like Alec had seen a ghost. For anyone else it would not have been anything to notice. In Alec's case, it often led to trouble. The last time that Alec had a run in with his past it lead to him nearly being killed by a one Mr. Bradsford over the incident with the putting his daughter into a near fatal coma which she later died from. Bradsford had been so pissed when he found Alec alive in the local area that he sent several goons after him to capture and or kill Alec for the hell that Alec had put him through years earlier. Alec only got out if by the skin of his preferable teeth when Max came to rescue him, ala Xena. Given the current situation Max's new co workers looked to have more than the usual Manticore connection, which could turn bad at anytime with the baggage that most Transgenics brought to the table with them. 

"So Aspen why don't you introduce me to your co-workers." Shadow said gesturing towards Max and Logan with a gentle roll of his hand. 

"Well, Alec I see that from the look on your face that you know Shadow from somewhere, and I have the feeling that you were in the same unit together." Logan said to Alec as he started to piece some of the stuff together, first with the Jacket that Shadow was wearing. "So what have you been doing since the night of the fire?" 

The look of shock that was on Asha's face illustrated the concept that she was starting to worry more, "You mean that Shadow is..." Asha added with emphasis by pointing with her right hand towards the back of her neck signifying the barcodes that Max, Alec and the other Transgenics possessed. 

"Yes, Asha he is like me and Alec." Max said to Asha. 

"Okay, so that we have all the formalities out of the way, I think that we better get down to business. Max I know that you have been running an underground for our people, I want in and the data files about who you have had run-ins with since the fire." Shadow said to Max was a growing determination. 

"Why do you want to look for the others, I mean I thought that you guys were supposed to lay low?" Asha said moving forward to Logan with Alec close behind her. Asha might have started to tolerate mutants but right now, she was scared of the fact that she did not know this one and what drove him. With her encounter with Gill-guy and Gill-girl, at least those two were in love with one another. For a guy who could breath underwater that would storm the preferable fortress to save his mermaid beauty from a mutant hunting bad guy and his resident bad guys. Some how Asha had the feeling that Shadow fell into the same mold of saving a damsel in distress from the evil king or dragon from some medieval castle. At that moment, Sketchy added to the conversation. "What the heck are you guys talking about? You guys sound like you belong to SW1." Questioning what Alec had done since the night of the "Fire," and his Gang-banging Manticore days.

"Uh, Sketchy, " Alec butted in, "Me and Shadow used to be Gang-members in our old days. You know grand-theft auto, robbery and the occasional contract hit." 

"I hope that you were just making up the last part." Sketchy said looking at Alec, differently. "So Shadow and you used to part of gang; so what were you guys known for, I mean the scams that you guys pulled must be legendary." 

"Hey Sketchy, some things are the best left alone." Original Cindy said stepping up to him and stopping him from further questioning. 

"So Shadow, you and Aspen are friends and Mel and Jim are your siblings." Max said to the two. Asha had since gently moved away from Alec and had started to feel more comfortable around the two new Transgenics, but since Sketchy was there, Logan and the others could not openly talk about what they needed to talk about. So to solve the problem, Original Cindy decided to take Sketchy by the hand and lead him to bi-sexual girl that she knew that might be interested in Sketchmister, well for at least thirty minutes. 

"Okay, since Sketchy is out of the way now," Logan said as he stood the pool cue on the floor and leaned on it like some Shaolin master. "We can get down to business Shadow, I believe that you need to feel us in about what your motives are about running your search pattern for other Transgenics." 

"Okay, Logan, the main reason that Me, Aspen, Mel and Jim want to do this search is that we want to find out what happened to our units. The total number of survivors that got out from the fire? What types and series that are out-there, and their capabilities so that we can track down those responsible for the fire. You know the rest. I know that command was attacked by an outside organization, now that organization is not S1W, due to the Intel that Manticore had gathered on them prior to the fire. They do not possess the capabilities, nor do they have the experience possible for them to infiltrate such a facility."

"Whoa, You mean that you know that S1W is not responsible. For the fire." Asha said looking Shadow right in the face. She was amazed that this guy actually knew the truth about the night of the Fire outside Logan, Max and Alec. "Do you have any evidence that would clear their names for the arson charges, books, files, papers, documents, video logs?" 

"No, but Melfina had run-in with one of those infiltrating scumbags the night of the fire. However, as you know, Josh slammed that asshole's head into the wall, killing his ass. So the only piece of evidence that clears their name is gone and the only way to trace those bastards just went up in smoke." Shadow said, to his audience. 

"I heard a rumor while I was still in Manticore, that Colonel Lydecker was attempting to expose someone who was running illegal operations and killing Transgenics for spare parts. Now the information that I heard was that he had made contact with Eyes Only, now if I could find Eyes, I might be able to figure out what he was looking for and who the hell was killing our people." Shadow said, looking towards Max wondering what was going on with her and this Logan person.

"Hey Shadow," Max said. "What's your designation number?" 

Shadow stood there for a second, then he replied to her, "X5-424, why do you ask?" 

"I have some stuff that I might look into." Logan said, "I have a source that might be able to get in contact with someone that knows Eyes Only. 

"Good. But if I get backstabbed, I know who did it and I will make your life hell." Shadow said walking towards the bar again.

"You know Shadow, seems like a type of person that does not trust so easily. Remind you of anyone Max." Logan said looking at Max remembering the time that she broke into his apartment. 

***

Melfina was sitting and working at her computer. The day had been unique and difficult. Many of her fears had been laid to rest by Joshua and his gentleness that he possessed. The way that Rain had behaved is what scared her the most. Though Rain was not a born Transgenic X-series, she had possession of their capabilities and from the feeling that she gave off. Rain was as much as an outcast as she was. Rain with all her quirkiness made Melfina seem as if given all the weirdness of the world, she had adapted well, given the fact that she had been turned into a mutant by Vampire Transgenic and had been saved by a member of the X-series. Rain's life was turning around for her and Melfina had felt that this girl along with Max might be her key to understand that she might be accepted into the larger scheme of things. 

Jim, who had become her annoying little brother, had forced her to deal with the fact that given her teenage hormones, she was going to be an adult soon. Well if she survived long enough to go through her first heat without the world finding out what she was and killing her for it. Nevertheless, Mel had felt that she needed to create a persona for herself so she entered a chat room and made the digital avatar of Lady Chimera. Mel had the feeling that Jim would be able to guide her in the creation of her avatar, something that would fit her but not reveal that she was a mutant. 

"Jim," Melfina said to the young X8, "I am creating a digital avatar for myself to put on the net. What do you feel that I should go as?" 

Jim, whose X8 training was incomplete from the time of the Fire, had considerable computer skills and combat training, but Girls, and their little nuances were mystery to him. "I don't know, go as a normal girl, just stick with what you feel is right and go with it for all I care. You are you, just go with the flow. Use an image from the "White Room", I don't know just be creative." He said. 

Jim looked at Melfina as she worked at her computer and he remembered his training of escape and evade throughout the Washington state woodlands. The times that he had spent out in the woods allowed him to develop his own technique about how to hideout in plain sight. For Melfina, Jim thought it would take her a while given the fact that she was an X-series custom to develop her skills to where they were with him. Melfina had experience with technology and computers, but Jim was a master at engineering. He could whip up a homemade motorcycle out of the spare parts from a bike shop. Tires, a chainsaw motor, some pipe (either metal or fiberglass), superglue, duct tape, screws, bolts, and some fabric for the chair and in about four hours, instant transportation. Mel who could jack into anything with a microchip in it, mainly focused her skills upon the artistry of mathematics and the power she could get from it.

Since the night of the fire, Melfina had started to lean upon Aspen and her experience in field ops to keep her alive. However, Aspen was a member of the Gia's, another one of the religions that had sprung up at Manticore. The Gia's believed in the ideas of the spirit world drawing most of their beliefs off of Native American, Aboriginal, Polynesian, Wicca, and Voodoo religions. The Gia's believed in the idea that their "soul" consisted of various components that were both animal and human. By listening to these spirits, they were able to harness their "sixth sense" and use it to lead them to victory during their missions. These beliefs gave many of the followers the sense the capabilities to move between the world of Man and of Spirit. Jim had learned a little about the Gia's beliefs and the mysticism that they held dear. Aspen every time that she went out surfing on her board to clear her head. She made a prayer to the spirits to guide and watch over those around them. The Gia's believed that when the sprit o a person needed to be found, they could be sought out if a member asked the spirits to locate the person and guide them. 

The times that Jim had witnessed Aspen harness her powers to their fullest was the night of the fire. She had been able to avoid the ambush set up by the infiltrators only after thirty plus spirits of dead Transgenics ranging from Nomilies to X-12s had come towards her to tell her that they were killed by people posing as Manticore personnel. The sprits had often been with Aspen since her childhood and the manner, which she came into contact with this imagery, was when she had an encounter with a Wiccian who had protected her from the disorientation caused by an earthquake in the local area. She and several other Transgenics had become sensitive to the shifts in the magnetic field of the area. The Wiccian priestess had been able to teach then to harness the spirits to protect them and shielded them from the unknown. Much of the magic that the Transgenics such as Aspen had learned was to listen to the spirit world and use it to guide them. during the missions that Aspen and others like her were on, they had the highest success rate than any unit ever created at Manticore. Though they did not have the highest scores at target shooting, Escape and Evade, combat training, or field medial skills, Lydecker considered them a force to be reckoned with as they used their powers to achieve the highest success rate for missions completed successively. They were Manticore's equivalent of the World War Two Pacific Black Sheep squadron that was the terror of the Pacific. 

Many of the Gia's had learned Navajo, and several other languages and combined them together, so for the code geeks in command, it drove them bonkers trying to figure out what those kids were saying. Jim who had heard Aspen speak some of the phrases during her prayers to the sprits had startled him to the point that he was afraid that Aspen would harness the spirits the resurrect the dead and send them after him when he slept. Only after Aspen had said that the sprits only communicate with the dead, not bring them back, was a short comfort for the young Transgenic. Magic, Sprits, talking with the dead. Give him a motor or a circuit board and he could understand that. 

"Hey Jim, I was thinking, using what you said about the "White Room" to create my avatar." Melfina said, then on the television there was a break in the transmission as an Eyes Only broadcast came on. 

"Do not adjust you sets, This cable hack will last exactly sixty seconds, it cannot be stopped, it cannot be traced, and it is the only free voice left in this city. For months, the members of the Transgenic community have been searching for answers about who had set the fire at Manticore. This message is aimed at X5-424 and members of his unit: I have found information that confirms your theory about renegade covert operations that you and others of your kind performed for your superiors in order for them to make a profit off of your actions. You are not alone, One of my operatives will contact you with information about how far it went and the operations that were performed for personal gain. This has been Eyes Only. Peace." The digitally modified eyes of the announcer went off of the air. Melfina turned and looked at the avatar she had created. It was time that Eyes Only learned that you do not interrupt someone while they are watching TV, but Eyes needed to know that he was about to meet Manticore's most advance computer hacker ever to be cooked up in a test tube. Melfina, X6-209. "Okay Eyes Only it is payback time, and Shadow, I hope that you forgive me for what I am about to do." 

Within moments, Melfina had started to use her powers to the fullest of her abilities. She was flowing her energies into her laptop. Speeding the processor of the machine to its maximum level. The avatar she had created started to become more refined and streamlined. Many of her facial features and the physical characteristics started to merge into the digital entity she was creating. The red and white shirt with flowing sleeves, the face of an generic Asian girl transformed into an universal protean individual. Then the voice, the digital creation of an individual transformed into varied wavelengths which contained the voices of Jennifer Lopez, Kelly Hu, Brittany Spears, Nelly Furtado, and Michelle Branch segmented and amalgamated together into a minute variation of vocal patterns which was almost symphonic. 

Then after completing the creation of the Avatar, Mel interfaced into several satellite uplink sites both public and privately owned and electronically muddied the cyber waters by looping the connection she created between these sites a few hundred times in and out of the system. With this scrambling of the network umpteen dozen times, she uploaded her avatar and ran it, all seven hundred megabytes of it. Then the photo-realistic girl took stage for the first time. 

"This is Lady Chimera, and I am sending a message to the Cable Hacker, Eyes Only. You know by my name what I am and what I am capable of. I am a member of X5-424's unit and this is a statement. You better know who you are talking to, because I have lost good friends of mine over the last few months, now I know that I will get in trouble with 424, but If you want to talk with us, you better do it to our faces. No digital masks, just you and us in a room. You know how to reach us. Leave the message." 

Across the city, Shadow and Aspen were watching one of the TVs in a electronic store window as they headed back to the Apartment where Melfina and Jim were at. they both knew that this was going to get ugly, but Melfina had forced the reclusive Eyes Only to come out of hiding and if things would go bad. It might be dangerous for all of the Transgenic community. 

***

TBC

The next chapter will deal with the Lady Chimera fallout, and Aspen tries to clear her head from the mess as she tries to get in touch with the spirit world and runs into an old friend of Shadow's. 

***

Chapter 6: The Call is for you, and the surf is up with Mermaids. 


	4. Ch 6 Setting of Characters Pasts Pt 3

Hidden Danger Crouching Cat.

By Shannon Hearn

The characters of Dark Angel are owned by Twentieth Century Fox Television and Cameron Eglee productions. All other characters are of my creation.

The next chapter will deal with the Lady Chimera fallout, and Aspen tries to clear her head from the mess as she tries to get in touch with the spirit world and runs into an old friend of Shadow's. 

I would like to thank Shonda for Grammar checking this chapter for me and pointing out some of the inconsistencies in this chapter. 

Now on with the story.

***

Chapter 6: The Call is for you, and the surf is up with Mermaids. 

The hours after the Eyes Only Broadcast had turned into a nightmare. One of Shadow's unit had gone Eyes Only Cable Hacker and broadcast that she was tempting Logan to contact Shadow and reveal who he was to him. Well, Max would have her hands full the next day at work trying to keep things under control with the two new Transgenic employees of Jam Pony. 

"Logan why don't you stick your foot into your mouth already", he thought. This girl, Melfina had some serious talent given what she did in a matter of minutes with what resources she had at her disposal. Either she had experience hacking into communication systems, like Max did when he and Matt Sung got captured by the crime boss Eyes Only was trying to bring down, or Melfina was more talented in some fields of telecommunication hacking than the other Transgenics developed at Manticore. Logan had realized this when he started examining the variety of creatures in the Transgenic community. Some Transgenics had excellent escape and evade skills such as Max while some of the Transgenics had excellent negotiating skills such as Alec did with his Black market back at Manticore. Zack's Leadership; Fixit's mechanical diagnostic skills; Joshua's Tracking skills; Marrow's warped medical training. So, if Melfina had some serious skills at computer infiltration, she could become a very powerful ally for Eyes Only. Given what Max had said about her being almost fearful of Normal people, she was almost borderline paranoid. So earning her trust would take time and patience. Nevertheless, Melfina's link with Max might be his ticket into making her a member of the Informant Net. 

"Max," Logan said, "could you have Melfina answer the phone at work, when I make my next broadcast tomorrow morning." 

"I'll see what I can do." Max said to Logan as she left his penthouse to head back to her Czech style apartment. 

***

Shadow had spent the last few hours just chewing out Melfina for doing what she did with her cable hack. He knew that her computer skills were formable, but after what she had done... Geeze, that would have gotten you tossed into the brig for a month or two, not including solitary confinement in the basement for most of that time. However, what she said had more or less had cut through the bullshit and gotten Shadow a personal seat with the Mighty High and Powerful Eyes Only. 

Now how the meeting would take place was a mystery, but he knew that aside from Alec and Max, the two other people that were there when he mentioned his designation was that Blond girl, Asha and that pool shark with the three-day growth of beard, Logan. Therefore, the list of suspects was very short in deed. Aspen was making her prayer to the Sprits for guidance and help for what was to come. Her look of fear and terror pulled at her with a force he had only seen once during the night of the Fire. Aspen was trying to contact the spirits of her existence, and trying to discover why Melfina had done what she had done by sending message to Eyes Only as she did. 

"Melfina, how could you do this, geeze? I was meeting with Max and Logan, any way to locate any of our people just might have gone up in smoke." Shadow yelled at the young X6, who was cringing curled up in a ball on the couch away from Shadow. "All that I know about these Transgenics that we bumped into have been trying to round our people up and get them to safety." 

"But Shadow, I just was..."

"Mel just stay quite for a second." Shadow said as he rubbed his forehead with one of his hands. "Well, we can't worry about spilt milk. However, you have forced the issue anyways, Now that I know that Eyes Only is involved in this and is probably helping them, or have a connection to them. We just have to wait and see." Shadow looked up to the ceiling, and then moved his gaze towards Jim. "So Jim what were you doing while Mel was hacking satellites, sitting on your hands, sheesh, give me the old days where I was a field medic treating troops in the field." 

"You were a field medic?" Aspen said moving away from her shrine with symbols of animals, pseudo humans, Chechnya dolls, and wooden Teki heads. 

"Yes, I was. I probably know the pluming of every Transgenic ever cooked up at Manticore other than the Lab geeks that cooked us all up." 

"So you know about my capabilities, and what I was designed for?" Melfina said looking at Shadow with wonderment. 

"Yes, Mel I know that you are one of the X-Series customs that was cooked up by the lab geeks. Hell I have had encounters with various aquatics, desert and arctic combat troops, a couple Brains, rats, cats, and at least one shocker who still owes me a couple of medical journals and a P.O.D. CD. Shadow said remembering all the patients that he treated in the field and the ton of favors that they still owed him. 

"Well, with all luck, we'll be contacted tomorrow." Aspen said as she looked towards Shadow. 

***

The next day at Jam Pony Melfina had dealt with Shadow chewing her out and had to use work as an escape. Mel had on a green hooded sweatshirt, and pair of long tight black parachute pants. Added to this assemble was a pair of fingerless gloves similar to the ones that Max and Alec wore. Mel had wanted to show Eyes Only that you did not mess with an X series and get off from making accusations towards them. That was before she realized that Shadow wanted to find the underlying cause of who had attacked command. Mel thought that hanging around Max might cheer her up. 

"Uh, Max tells me have you ever had fears about being around humans. I mean while you were out in the world?" Melfina said moving over towards Max very consciously, not knowing that Aspen had told her about the Lady Chimera incident. Well it was until Sketchy announced it to the world. 

"Hey did you hear about this Lady Chimera that did an Eyes Only type of cable hack." Sketchy said. "Either Eyes Only has an admirer or someone that wants to replace him. Then suddenly butting in Max added. 

"I mean anyone that is part of this X5-424 unit could be a member of the X5's that we heard about last year." 

"What do you mean Max?" Melfina said, worried about that she had been discovered as Lady Chimera. 

"About a year ago, Eyes Only did this broadcast about a unit called X5, and said that their unit's positions had been compromised. The rest was a mystery to me, but given his tone, it was serious. He only made contact with this unit only on a few occasions but the last time he made contact with them was prior to I left for her heart surgery." The sleek and sexy X5 with an attitude looked at the both of them with questioning. "Hey Mel, what would you say to Lady Chimera, if you got a chance?" 

"Um, I'd say what the hell were you thinking when you did the broadcast." Mel said trying not to stutter it out. Then right at that moment there was a cut in on the music video channel that was constantly on at Jam Pony.

"Do not adjust you sets. This cable hack will last exactly sixty seconds, it cannot be stopped, it cannot be traced, and it is the only free voice left in this city. This message is for Lady Chimera and your associates, you will be contacted in relation to the face to face meeting that you wanted with your associates is going to be held. I know about the culture that you were raised in. The follower of the Blue Lady will be your guide to where the meeting will take place. She has been one of my operatives who I have personally met. In addition, she had said, and I quote, "Kiss My Ass", to my face. So Lady Chimera, you were not the only person that has challenged me, but only a few have the skills you do to do a cable hack of my caliber. This is Eyes Only. Peace." The sound of gaps and stutters echoed throughout the offices of Jam Pony. Melfina just stood there, staring at the television screen, just stuttering and staring blankly at the screen. 

"Mel, Melfina." Max said as she moved over to look at Melfina trying to figure out why she had shut down as she did so often. When Max got in front of Mel, all that came out of Mel's mouth were the words "Blessed be the Blue Lady," where were almost said in an almost drunken state. Then her eyes rolled up in her head before she fainted. With superhuman speed, Max caught Melfina before she fell on the floor. 

"Mel, geeze Mel, I'm sorry." Max said looking towards Cindy and Aspen. "Uh, girls, could you help me here." Max was holding Mel barely up, given her strength; she could easily haul the girl over her shoulder with no problem. However, showing off her superhuman strength in front of her co-workers would be a problem. Quickly Aspen and Cindy had come to her aid and were picking her up and taking her over to the women's restroom. Putting Mel on the floor Max gently patted Melfina's face just to get her to wake up. 

"No, not the tank... I'll do what you ask, but I will not go into the Tank again. Eyes Only, I'm sorry about hacking your system." Mel said incoherently, it was as if she was in a dream slash nightmare. 

"Aspen, was Mel put into Psych ops, during her stay at Manticore?" Max said directly to Aspen as she tried to bring the young Transgenic back to reality. 

"I don't know? Mel was unglued the night that we found her. Given that the fact that she is a bio-cyber, and the strain that she goes through when she jacks into those systems, is probably the reason that she is like this. 

"Great, another head case to deal with." Max said, as she started to notice Mel's hair starting to rise by some external force. Then there was a zap which it Max's hand straight on. 

"Ow." Max jumped back. "What the... I just got shocked!!!"

"Well, you just found out that Mel has electric eel in her genetic makeup." Aspen said apologizing for the effects that Melfina had just performed. As Max moved back to look at Mel more closely, Melfina's eyes shot open, and a very loud gulp was taken by her. 

"Eyes Only knows you doesn't he?" came out of the young X series. 

"Yes, he does Mel." Was the reply from Max as she gently put her hand on the Girl's shoulder. 

"When do we meet him?" Aspen looked at Max with some very serious intensions. 

"After work and one phone call." Max pointed out to the both of them. 

***

The day progressed quietly along for the four Transgenics at Jam Pony. The runs were quiet and consistent with the work that had to be done. Mel had to deal with the idea that she had set in motion events that meeting with Eyes Only. Aspen felt that Mel was having a flashback to events that happened to her at Manticore. Some of the events of Mel's past were still a mystery, so probably Eyes Only might have a lead on what the techs did to her when she was part of the Cyber-ops unit. Mel decided to swing by the T-Bloods church and visit with Rain. Somehow, Rain being a Norm that had been transformed into a creature other than human, made Rain seem less menacing to her. 

As Melfina rode her bike towards the old Church, her life to that point in time looked like another lifetime ago. Mel remembered the time that she was put into a sensory tank when she was a child, before the Pulse. The idea was to put a series of computer interface points on her hands and in the tank itself to monitor the electrical current that her body produced. Within this submerged environment, she was trained to interface with the electronics around her. The resulting idea was that if a Transgenic could interface into the electronic gear that a modern soldier carried such as his communications radio, his handheld computer with satellite uplink, GPS unit, hell even their CD-player and feed them wrong and misleading data the soldier could be led into an ambush and would not be able to call for help. In the process it give the enemy an information overload at their command center to the point that the commander would not be able to launch an effective counter attack. Hijacking fighter jets, naval frigate, satellites and helicopters were optional mission objective Mel and the other Bio-cybers had done during their lives at Manticore. When the pulse hit, a good chunk of the hardware and the networks that Melfina and the others were developed for were destroyed or disabled by the microscopic power surge that tore through the circuit boards of those systems. 

Mel stopped her bike, got off of it, and walked into the church wondering what would Eyes Only be like when she and the others meet with him. 

***

"Hey Mel did you hear about this Lady Chimera, I mean anyone who can say up yours to Eyes Only's face has to have some guts." Rain said to Melfina across the table they were eating at. The burger place they were at was simple, one of those hole in the walls that no one knows about except for a select few that know that the food there is the best. The burgers that were cooked to the point where the natural animal fat and the cherry taste to them made your mouth drool at the mere thought of them existing. All if placed onto the sweetest home cooked buttermilk bun that would drive your cholesterol level though the roof. The burger that you would drool over and have dreams about sitting down to and taking an hour to eat in loving care. Don't mind the chips or the fries; they would only be a distraction. The places which every state trooper and cop within a city would religiously go to for the meal of a lifetime. 

Mel just stared across the table at Rain. "What???" Mel said drifting back to reality getting worried about her being discovered as being as Lady Chimera. 

"Mel, I was talking about Lady Chimera, I mean most of the references that Eyes Only eluded to about know about your people makes me wonder if he knew about Marrow and what he did to me and the other T-Bloods?" Rain said to the X6 attempting to figure out how much she should tell her or jut flat out just attempt to gloss it over. 

"Rain, I think that he knew about what Marrow did to you guys. I mean he has operatives in various communities. Heck, he probably knew about Marrow from the Manticore files that he has, it was probably just the sheer number of us out there is probably why he didn't get a chance to stop him when he did show up." 

"Well, at least he has a few of his contacts are working to stabilize me and the other T-Bloods physiologies." Rain said looking at Mel with her hair unbraided and laying down the back of her neck. "I know, but I have to live with the decisions that I made for the rest of my life?" Rain said looking back at the day before she met Marrow, and was fully human. The way that Marrow had put it, she needed to be faster and stronger to survive in a world that had gone mad. The preaching that she would be jacked into the "Tribe of the alive" made her fear go away until she met a woman named Max. 

When Max had shown her the truth, about what Marrow was and the fact that Max had taken it upon herself to protect her people from harm. Well knowing that you were a person who could throw a seven-foot tall football linebacker through a brick wall and not think a second about it and realize that there were others like Max out there who all they wanted was to live their lives in peace. The idea of being put into the "tribe of the alive" now meant that you had to live by their rules now. From Rain had seen of Mel was that she was just scared of not being able to handle the obligations of living in a world where being jacked up was not a good thing, and your tribe was being hunted by the Men In Black constantly. 

"I know Rain, there are some-things that you do wrong that you wish you could take back, but some are lessons that you have to learn the hard way." Melfina said pondering about her future which would be unfolding in the next few hours. 

***

The day flowed fast and at six thirty that evening, Max and the gang had completed their runs. Mel and Aspen had to wait for Shadow and Jim to show up at Jam Pony. Since Max and Alec had only encountered Shadow before out side of Melfina and Aspen, Jim was a new addition to the group. Jim's small X8 frame put him into the position of appearing to be a child, but given his age Jim was probably close to the age that of Max and the other '09 escapees were. 

Jim's overgrown Blond hair mirrored that of Melfina's. The hair that covered the barcodes on the backs of their necks hid their barcodes from prying eyes. From what she saw, it had done the trick effectively enough. Jim's appearance consisted of long white pants, a red t-shirt and a brown jacket. What had caught Max's attention was that Jim was still wearing Manticore Issue combat boots. The look of coldness but curiosity was in his eyes what shocked her the most. Had she and the other '09s looked like that to the world when they escaped into the outside away from their masters to a better life? Max got that worried look on her face that Jim would have it better than she had it. At least he would have others to be with other than her liven her life in constant fear since she got separated from her sister Johndy the night of the escape. 

Now Max looked at the differences that She and Jim had. However, all her questions would be brought to a stop when he spoke. 

"So, your Max" Jim said looking right into her face though he was at least a good two feet shorter than she was. "I thought that you were taller given the way that Mel talks about you, I mean she worships the ground that you walk on." 

The look of, oh shit, I have a groupie on Max's face made her feel that society she had influenced back at Manticore would become a force to be reckoned with. Though getting through the meeting would be very difficult in the next few hours, Max had figured out that Melfina was Lady Chimera and this sensitivity towards her could make her wonder how dangerous things could get when Shadow and the others discovered that Logan was Eyes Only. 

"Jim, I am just a person, not a great person, just a person who made a choice in her life that is linked with you all." Was All Max said as she attempted to force the issue forward and just contact Logan as she made her way to the payphone in the room and placed a call to Logan's cell phone. 

"Hey, This is Max, the meeting is on I have Shadow and the others ready, where do we meet?" With those words, the meeting was on.

***

Logan's selection of the meeting place had been an old abandoned office building that had sold computer software. The little Mom and Pop operation had been called Kroager and Scott software. The technology that they had once produced was related to neural-data interface technology, the abilities to run computers by the mind, but they were ten years ahead of the time and the fact when the pulse hit, they had taken a beating and had been forced to sell off their assets. Included in these assets was the technology that led to the development of Logan's Exo-harness and practically every mayor piece of cyber enhancement on the market. Fate is not without a sense of irony, so Logan had taken a tablet computer system with an independent wireless modem and had attached a set of speakers to it. These speakers were modified in such as way that they functioned as speakers for a built in two-way radio. Having a remote archive of the Eyes Only video broadcast that he had kept on file to use as a generic incase he had been punched in the eye or had a facial injury that he could not have shown on television. This type of stored footage would give Logan an alibi when he had to do a broadcast, the file had come in handy when Logan had been captured and had been forced to reveal that he was Eyes Only. Luckily, Max had used the file to make it look like he was doing an impersonation of himself. The stored file would allow Logan some distance as he talked with Shadow and the others. 

Logan had the night before had gone through the old Manticore files that Lydecker had given him on the X series and had dug into some of Shadow's, Aspen's and Melfina's pasts. The files on Jim were practically non-existent due to him being so young and most of his file being dedicated to his boot camp training. Logan had loaded just enough information into the system on enough of the X-series that it would protect him from being skewered. Then the vibration on Logan's sleeve had started buzzing on him and he answered it. The meeting was on and they would be there in about thirty minutes. 

***

When Shadow and the rest of his unit entered the old office building and moved towards one of the main conference rooms where there was a tablet computer system setup with an IR keyboard with touch pad, a pocket video camera, and externally plugged in speakers. On the screen were the twin scrolling bars of texts for Streaming Freedom Video and between the text were the known eyes of Eyes Only. 

Shadow looked around the conference room. The place was simple and quite functional for the purpose it was to be used for and he looked towards Aspen to get her senses on the situation. 

"Aspen, what do you sense here?" Shadow said to his fellow X5. Aspen looked around the room and delved into the spirit reality which she was part of. While in the spirit reality she used her senses and her insight to search for anyone else in the building or nearby. 

"Shadow I sense that he is here and that he is near by. Probably in the building." Aspen said to Shadow then she moved her gaze to Melfina as the young X6 who walked over to the computer and touched it. Then suddenly the system went bonkers as Melfina delved into the command protocols and searched the drive to backtrack were Eyes Only was broadcasting from. Then Mel took her hand off the computer and moved her hand over to touch the speaker. Melfina tapped the speaker with her hand before she brought it to her mouth and whistled into it as loud as she could. The look on Eyes Only's face by the squint on his face was priceless. 

"The speaker is a two way microphone." Melfina said to Shadow as she handed the speaker over to him. "The transmit range of it is probably a few hundred yards. So that places him within the building itself." Then right at that moment right out of the speaker came the words of gritting pain.

"Max, please tell Melfina that I admire her work but please do not let her whistle again into the speaker." Then a moment later he said, "Shadow I will meet with you in a moment, just after I grab an aspirin for the splitting headache that I have now." Then the action on the screen changed as Shadow saw the two-day-old growth of beard that was distinctly Logan's. 

The six Transgenics waited a few moments as Logan entered the room taking large slugs of water from a bottle and gently rubbing one of his ears and rolling his jaw around trying to make the ringing stop in his head.

"Well, well, well. The high and mighty Eyes Only." Shadow said with a smug grin on his face. 

"I'd thought that he would be bigger from all the hype that I have heard about him." Jim said giving Logan a once over with his eyes. 

"Well, great things tend to hide in unsuspecting packages." Logan said in his defense to the young X-series. "Your about the same age that Max was when she escaped from Manticore back in '09." The look on Jim's face was priceless. The realization that somehow that some of the troubles and feelings that he was having were close to what the Transgenics who had left Manticore on their renegade mission for freedom. This now meant that he had to cope that Max knew what might be some of the problems, which would arise with him in the months and years to come. 

"So fill us in on what you know about the renegade Ops that were run at Manticore?" Shadow said moving towards Logan with concern and deliberate worry about what would happen next.

"Several months ago prior to me running the story that exposed Manticore, Colonel Lydecker came to me after he learned that Madam X herself Elizabeth Renfro was performing illegal operations such as taking Transgenics and carving them up for lab analysis and spare parts. The only way that I found out about it was when Max's brother Zach had found out where Tinga, another one of the '09 escapees had this done to her and max was captured by Lydecker, a major shift occurred. Lydecker was appalled by the actions taken without his orders and the fact that his "kids" were being needlessly being sacrificed for reasons they should have been. That is when Lydecker contacted me and we formed an alliance to take Manticore down. First we had to prove that it existed, second prove the facts for the illegal operations that had been performed without his knowledge under his watch." Logan paused for a moment to remember how the mission had gone badly. "Except the mission gone bad and to buy time for us to dig up information about the complex, we had to blow the genetics lab with all the DNA material on final for all of you guys, the explosion worked well expect that Max and her brother Zach were captured during their pull out of the complex. And for the months afterwards me and Lydecker had to work with the resources that we had to expose Manticore with the hard evidence to tell that it existed, this way we could get an oversight committee to look over Manticore's mission books." 

"But Renfro put a stop to that when she set the fire to the compound and had the staff start shooting at any of the Transgenics that would have gotten out." Max added as she put forward what she knew. "That is why I overrode the security lookouts that were keeping everyone in their rooms and their barracks the night of the fire. I had to get everyone out. Then twenty-four hours later, I had to stop a renegade NSA agent named Ames White from completing Renfro's mission of scorched earth by killing how many Transgenics he could get his hands on by using the command bird from which we received our filed orders from." Max added to the conversation looking over towards Shadow. "Me and Alec and a few X6s were able to foil that plan from White and get everyone to go to ground so that if White cannot find us, the more safer we are from being hunted down by him."

"So that is the reason why you were so pissed at us for doing our little search for others of our kind. You were afraid that our activities would be picked up by this "White" dude and we be killed over it." Melfina had piped in using some of the jargon that she had picked up from Original Cindy and Rain. 

"That is pretty much the sum of it, but we have recently learned the White is not working for his U.S. Government employers, but he is working from some group/cult called the Familiars who see us a problem for their plans of world domination, or something like that." Max added to the conversation 

"So Alec, how the heck did you wind up with these two. You must be running some scam on them?" Shadow added to his former teammate.

"No, the main reason that I am hanging with these two is that one, Renfro ordered me to be Max's breeding partner so that I could get close to Eyes Only and blow his brains out of existence, two when plan one failed I had to save everyone else ass from being killed by White and his Transgenic murder-death squad." Alec paused for a moment as he considered how to proceed to go without embarrassing himself more. "And, three, Max saved my ass after a guy who I was ordered to take out on an Illegal operation when sour. It resulted in his daughter instead of him in an assassination attempt." Alec paused for a moment trying not to expression the emotions he held for Rachel Bradsford, the daughter of the man he was ordered to kill. "The man I was ordered to take out had information that would expose Manticore's existence to the world and probably have led to many of the individual who were running the illegal operations that both you and I had run to be exposed to public scrutiny." Alec finished trying to keep his distance. "A few months ago Bradsford the man who I was ordered to kill, had learned that I was in the local area had put a contract out on my head. Max came to the rescue from him killing me, so as a sort of debt to her and to avenge what happened to me due to the girl that I nailed, I work with them to make some sort of penance for what I have done."

"That doesn't sound like you, Alec" Shadow said to him as he got back a look of "don't go there, and I have my reasons"

"Okay, Alec, I understand. I'll back down for now, but you still owe me some information about it." Shadow said to Alec.

"So where do we go. I mean, we are ass deep into this." Aspen said looking around at everyone in the room. 

"The information that I have about the illegal Ops is limited from what I have been able to dig up from Alec, yourself, Shadow and a bits and pieces that I have been able to dig up from what is left from the Manticore database that Lydecker gave me after his falling out with Madam X herself, Renfro. Lydecker hoped that any information that I could dig up and proof that could get Manticore disbanded, and those who were abusing its existence. If this information got out, those responsible would be afraid that their positions of power would be taken away from them. The effect of this political fall out and these politicians out of the way would probably lead to all you guys having a normal life." Logan said to emphasize his point of what might have been except for the cover the ass failsafe plan had gone into effect to take down the Transgenics before they could talk and say anything. 

"Now right now you have to deal with the fact that there is a death squad out there trying to wipe out the evidence that Manticore ever existed." Aspen said as she sensed the spirits of various dead Transgenics who were coming into the room. The faces of various rats, bats, lizards, cats, and at least one dog with a horde of deformed creatures were hovering around the conversation that was going on. What caught her attention were the images of a few X6s and a male Brainaic who seemed to gravitate near Max and Melfina. What scared the crap out of her was that there was a woman in her late teens that was standing near Alec, crying as the other spirits around her took up a comforting position around her and consoled her as she attempted to stroke the side of Alec's face. Then Aspen spoke up towards Alec. 

"Rachel loves you still and want you to be with Asha." Those simple words put a scare into Alec that got him so angry that he exploded at Aspen. 

"Get your PsyOps telepathic ass out of my mind and never go in there again. Rachel was important to me and you ever mention her to Asha, I will make your life hell." Alec said as he gave the look of never do that to me again. The mood in the room was such that 'Aspen knew that if she used her powers like that again, Alec and the others would immediately ostracize her from the community. 

"I'm sorry, I just felt that you should tell Asha about how you felt and some of the history that you have with other women in your life. It could help your relationship." She said to the male X5 who was about to march out of the room at that moment. 

"Hey Logan, whatever you know and what we can do to help you protect our kind will be a big effort. Okay" Shadow said looking a now angry Alec now walking out of the conference room. "I hope that Aspen's actions don't make you think that this is the way that my unit operates." Shadow said trying to defend his teams actions. 

"This is nothing compared to running into Max's old unit. Trust me, Zach her big brother was a force to be reckoned with before he became a cyborg." Logan said in condolence to Shadow. 

"This is going to be one hell of a friendship." Shadow said to Logan as they left the meeting room with Melfina carrying the computer tablet under one of her arms. 

***

The evening was one long strung out questioning of what had happened. Aspen knew that she had blown the entire connection that she had with Alec. So apologizing to him would take some time. However, right now she needed to clear her head the only way that she knew. To surf the waves with her board and let the forces of nature take away her pain. 

The water of the ocean allowed Aspen a sense of peace. The surfboard that she had found in a pile of stuff that was thrown into the trash from an old abandoned house being cleaned out. Aspen had found the board and a couple of videos and tip guides of how to use it were just tossed into a box. 

Aspen had made a crude two piece swimsuit out of two old tank tops which were sewn together with a piece of polyester looped around the breast area to add some additional support to her bust and to accentuate her form. The lower half of the suit was constructed the same way out of panties but with a significant difference in the crotch and buttock area being insulated against the cold. If going swimming in the cold northern waters of the Pacific Ocean, Aspen was not having her ass frozen off from going into the water. 

When Aspen started surfing it was her way to unwind from encountering everyday life and dealing with the spirits ranging from the white haired Loa from the Voodoo religion who took the form of a streetwise teenage girl who wore silver and yellow cheerleader uniform and a gray baseball cap. The other spirit she encountered was a brown cougar chimera human that looked like some bouncer at some bar. Those two entities tended to lead her out of danger when they made their point clear to herby giving the Transgenic sign for danger or warning, but at times they just drove her plain nuts from them bickering about the spirit world. 

The board that Aspen ha rode like a dream on the waves s she connected with the living world. The force of the waves as they rose and fell as she caught them and rode them, forced her to come to grips with the realities she witnessed around her. The very birth waters that the mother of the world which all life was created from. 

Wrestling with the waves as she rode them for a few hours brought her peace. The night was coming quickly as the temperature dropped as with the sun. Aspen soon changed her eyesight so that she could see into the dark. The vibrant blues, violets, greens, whites and yellows that made up the night environment she provided a level of stealth for her to move around. The waves and her were connected on a spiritual level as she rode along them, through them, above them and under them. Aspen's body felt so alive when the water and her linked as she moved with the movement of the waves and the control that her body had with it. The primal force that did not care whether or not you were cooked up in a test-tube or were naturally born. All the waves cared for was that you were along for the ride and staying on top was your main concern and to enjoy it as long as it lasted. Then Aspen felt that she needed to head on in, it was getting late and going through the maintenance tunnels that ran form the shore all the way through to the inner city. These tunnels provided a route that many of her kind had used for escape routes and free movement would be smelly at the least but it was the only way that Aspen would not be caught by the Sector Police if she did not have her Id on her. 

As Aspen rode the last of the waves that she wanted to ride for the day in, the coolness of the water lapped at her hundred and one point eight body temp as she allowed her body to relax on the board as she laid on. Aspen laid on it as the surf pushed her on in until she felt the sand of the shore brush against the tips of her toes.

As Aspen got off her board, the purple swim top that she wore was suckling the back of her bar-coded neck as she walked to shore towards the buried backpack that she had her stuff in. The beach was abandoned by this time of the night and no one was around to bug her as she walked over the to the staff that she had half buried into the ground with a urban gray, blue and white camouflage flag on the end of it. When Aspen went to the flag she found that it was undisturbed and preceded to dig up her bag and pull out a large five foot by four foot beach towel to dry herself off with and use as a sort of impromptu dressing room as she striped her swim gear off. 

Aspen had felt that fully stripping in public would raise many questions and probably would get her arrested by the sector police for indecent exposure. After Aspen had dried herself off as much as she could to get the excess water off her body and her swimsuit. She wrapped it around her body as she dug out a hooded black sweatshirt, green sweat pants, and a pair of green deck shoes. The pulling of her swim briefs off from the towel was simple as she looped one leg out of the suit while she transferred it to the pants leg. The pulling of her top off took about the same amount of effort but it was the most nerve-racking for her due to leaving her not able to see for several seconds. Aspen had to face towards the shore and the sand of the inland with her back to the water so that no one would be able to seen her barcode on the back of her neck. As Aspen pulled her top over her head twelve sets of eyes looked on as she left her sagging black hair slick over the front of her head as the towel wrapped around her fell to the ground leaving her naked breasts exposed to the cool night air. It was not until Aspen felt the towel hit her feet and she cursed aloud that she felt a cold hand touch the back of her neck. At that instant Aspen spun around and grabbed he hand that was touching her, twisting it down and around the person it belonged to get behind them, then she used one of her powerful legs to knock the person in the stomach and used her leg as a pivot point as she flipped the person onto their back. 

With Aspen standing over her opponent, she put her foot down on the person's chest and saw a dark haired woman wearing a dark reflecting silver diver skinsuit. The look on this woman's face was of pure terror. It was if she was trying to say something but the sounds were not coming from her mouth but from her entire body. The young woman seemed to be panting, as something seemed to flutter against the bottom of Aspen's foot. It took Aspen a moment to look down at her attacker more closely, and then she noticed why she had not noticed the woman coming towards her from the beach. The woman had come out of the water and she had gills. She had just scared the shit out of an X-series custom developed for aquatic combat. Aspen quickly recognized the Transgenic in front of her giving the sign for "Friend", the near heart attack that Aspen had had in those few seconds had made her think that Agent White had come for her. But Aspen just fell to the ground laughing her head off next to the water-breathing Transgenic, It took Aspen a moment or two to get off of the euphoria from the excitement for her to signal "All clear and Friend" with her hands and to show her fellow Transgenic the back of her neck. Then out of the blue, a very topless Aspen just hugged the fool out of the Sea Nymph as she took a couple of deep breaths of relief. The hands of the Nymph slowly tapped Aspen's back and the two of them looked at each other for several moments and started laughing at each other. The nymph started looking at Aspen's naked breasts, which Aspen took notice of and giggled along with the joke as she reached over and pulled up off the ground her sweatshirt and slipped it on. 

"So, I believe that we both scared the crap out of each other." Aspen said to the Nymph who was grinning at her and got a nod back as her reply. 

"So what is your story?" Aspen said to the Nymph who was attempting to speak but the words came out as very garbled and unintelligible, so they swapped to using hand gestures to communicate between one another. It took a while but getting the conversation going but it went as follows:

"So what is your designation?" Said the Nymph to Aspen with a look of curiosity in her eyes.

"My designation is X5-796, but I go by the name among the Norms as Aspen Anderson Kilowa." 

"Mine is X-223, I am known by the others as Hannnn ah"

"Hannah, that is a nice name, how did you come up with it?" 

"It started out as, Hannnn nak, but it became over time Hannn ah among others like myself. In the time that we spent together growing up." 

"There are more of you? I know another like myself that had done some medical work on some of your kind. He is currently a member of my unit. What does he look like?"

"Well I only know a few of your kind, I mean a couple of them that run with human allies that helped save my life by a man that wanted to experiment on me. They were like you, one with female with black hair who is with a normal that wears glasses." 

"What do you mean, could you recognize them if you saw them again?"

"Yes I would like to but the last time I got involved by being captured by a group of norm fisherman who sold me to some next of mating females that would seek out a mate by dancing in front of them for strips of green paper. Then she came to the rescue of me along with my mate after the adventure I was on." 

"So you have not had pleasant experiences with Norms have you."

"No, I have not."

"Neither have I, but they are not all evil, some may be jerks but the rest are decent enough folks" 

"Yes they are, but only in small numbers."

At that moment several other creatures and beings such as Hannah came out of the water and moved towards the two of them. The Transgenics that came forward to them consisted of individuals that were like Hannah, humans with Gills, many of which ranged from the ages of twenty-two to twelve. Some of the aquatics looked more animal with their features being that of otter, shark, seal, dolphin and frog in their features and genetic structure. Some of them were wearing the same type of skinsuits that cut down drag resistance in water as they moved through it. A X-series type male with dark skin and dark hair and wore a black dive suit walked over towards Hannah and Aspen realized that he was protective of her. 

"Let me guess, your boyfriend?" 

"No, my mate."

"Oh, listen, if you need to go back to your home."

"Yes, and also I am a mother."

"Well, it is getting late and I think that we both have to go home. So listen, want to meet tomorrow night."

"Yeah, could you bring some pictures of your friends along so I can see what they look like."

"How about I bring a few of my friends along, tomorrow, one maybe two of them. They might be interested in what you are and what you can do. We Transgenics have to stick together in these trying times." 

"I have to play the part of Mommy right now. Uh, nice talking with you. See you tomorrow night Aspen." 

"See you soon, Hannah." With that, the two young women went in their different directions to the lives that they led. Little did they know that in the next few hours Hannah would need the help of Eyes Only once again, but this time it was not to save her life. But, that of a young child who will be prayed upon by the monsters of mankind. 

TBC

The next chapter will be a murder mystery that will drag the Transgenic community into a level were Aspen will have to come clean with the Gills and the possibility that there are some things that are Nastier than Ames White. 

***

Chapter 7: Gardens, murder, Transgenics and the Bad Cops.


	5. Ch 7 Eyes Only's Transgenic Operatives P...

Hidden Danger Crouching Cat.

By Shannon Hearn

The characters of Dark Angel are owned by Twentieth Century Fox Television and Cameron Eglee productions. All other characters are of my creation.

The next chapter will be a murder mystery that will drag the Transgenic community into a level were Aspen will have to come clean with the Gills and the possibility that there are some things that are Nastier than Ames White. 

Warning the following chapter has disturbing material related to drowning. Rated "R". 

***

Chapter 7: Gardens, murder, Transgenics and the Bad Cops.

Aspen was ecstatic and tired at the same time from her encounter with Hannah, the aquatic Transgenic that she had encountered. Hannah's black hair and delicate features of her face made her seem less like a soldier but like a lovely Nymph that could protect nature. Aspen had felt glad that her encounter with Hannah would mean that soon that the Transgenic community might come together and be able to take down the monsters that sought to destroy their people. Nevertheless, Aspen needed sleep, it would be a busy day tomorrow and she needed to tell Shadow about what she had met. A water breathing Transgenic, the stories that they would know about operations pulled off by Manticore during its most confidential days of operation. Right now Aspen had felt glad that when she went surfing again, She would have someone to share the experience with from under the waves. 

However, apologizing to Alec for her inconsiderate actions about talking about Rachel had opened up old wounds that he was trying to deal with. There were some things that she just should have let been and left unsaid until it was time to reveal it. Nevertheless, hell, life was unpredictable and so were the dead. 

As Aspen came up from the maintenance tunnels she used to travel to apartment building that she Shadow and their fellow Transgenics shared. She decided to take a shower when she got in to clean off the salt water from her skin she soon would find out about the strange water pressure that Shower had. Shadow, Jim and Mel had decided to take their baths early and the water had turned chillingly cold. 

"Shhhiiiiiiittttttttttttttt!!! You guys should start putting a sign up when you use up all the hot water." Aspen yelled at her roommates. 

***

The next day at Jam Pony, the four Manticorians were talking about the meeting that had happened the night before and it was not pretty. 

"Aspen, I don't know that you are PsyOps, but there are some rules that you have to follow, and that is no using your powers at work unless it is of a life or deaths crisis." Max said emphasizing every word that she said. 

"Yeah I know Max, but I tend to do whatever it takes to achieve a mission.. So do not jump down my throat in the process." Aspen said looking towards Max with questions about what was your engineer smoking when he cooked you up, did he stick a stick up your ass during your invetro state. 

"You know Aspen, you disappeared just after the meeting that we had with Logan last night?" Melfina said looking towards Aspen with the questioning look on her face. Aspen looked at her with a smirky grin back at her. 

"With some friends that I met list night while I was surfing." With a sudden poof as like magic came the shaggy head of Sketchy from around a corner of lockers.

"Whoa, you surf??? Wow, the Beach goddess is actually a BEACH GODDESS." Were the words coming out of the Grunge master. 

"Yeah, Sketchy. I surf so that I can clear my mind after I have a rough day." Aspen said as Sketchy walked away. Aspen decided to play a little joke on Sketchy to get him out of her hair. Just as Sketchy left to sit by his lunch, she located his mini dictation recorder that he used to record his interviews for the stories that he did for the New World Weekly. Aspen decided to record a little something that would freak him out and leave him a little drooling in the process with the use of very simple words: "I surf naked at midnight. Signed the Beach Goddess: Aspen. Oh, you're drooling on yourself. 

"Now if you think that I like having a body that people idolize over. I don't. I just want to be me, get to know me for who I am." If that did not make him nearly choke or spit out whatever he was eating, the last part would at least prevent him from bugging her. Taking up the role of the Amazon Surf Goddess was totally against her personality but she found that it would give her a tactical edge way from the hormone-seeking males. 

"Hey Sketchy, here is your recorder." Aspen said holding up the small piece of electronic equipment in her hand. 

"Thanks." Said Sketchy as he took the recorder from Aspen and walked away. As Sketchy took the recorder up to his ear and checked if any of his messages that he had on it were deleted. Just when Sketchy skipped to the last recording on the device as he was walking by couch by the wide screen television. The message she had left on it had caused him to zone out and run right into the back of the couch at waist level and flipped right on over it eventually ending up face first right in Sky's pizza which he had sitting right next to him. 

Aspen watched the scene unfold and just grinned and said. "Men. The weaker sex."

Everyone in the room looked at Sketchy as he got up pulling pepperoni off his face and he just took a look at Aspen with the feeling that the dream of every male at Jam Pony to see her in a wet T-shirt would probably happen, but Aspen "Naked." Following her would be a dream of a lifetime. 

Max just looked at Aspen with the feeling that getting along with her would be more trying than Alec on his worse money grubbing day. Hell Mia, the PsyOps witch that waltzed her way into Jam Pony a few weeks earlier drove her nuts with all the "whammies" that she pulled off on Max and Alec just to help her get your precious Dougie away from his life in crime. The Curvaceous Killer had kicked the Magnificent Monte Cora's perfectly arrogant ass for all the messes he left her with. Mia, had gone full puppy doggie pouty on Max with the idea that even Transgenics can fall in love, even when they can influence other people around them. 

Aspen had a persona, which she possessed that Max understood clearly. It was a technique that Aspen and the other Transgenics had used to cope with uncomfortable situations that they found themselves in. Aspen was playing the drop-dead gorgeous woman that men desired and women wanted to be. Somehow, Max had felt that during the meeting Aspen was holding some secret back. The entire "Rachel" thing had seriously creped Alec out and Aspen had acted that somehow her "sixth sense" allowed her to learn stuff about people when she entered a situation. However, Aspen seemed glad almost relieved from the events of the previous night when she had been alone. 

"Aspen, you said that you surf. Why do you do such a thing?" Max's question came out with more of a point than as a question. 

"Well I surf, so that I can clear my head. It is my escape from reality." Aspen said looking at her fellow X5. 

"Its the same way with me and my Motorcycle. If anyone touches it, I get personally pissed at them." Max said looking at Aspen with more understanding. Max and Aspen were both from the same people and the ways that they felt about the world and the ways that they coped with the problems around them forced them to become more flexible and adaptable to the things that occurred in their lives. 

"Yeah, I'm the same way with my surfboard.. If anyone touches it, I want to rip them apart. I spend my late night ours ribbing it down with Sexwax and making sure that the grip padding on it is in shape." 

"So, surfing brings you a sense of peace." Max said with a sympathetic grin. 

"Yeah, it does, but last night I ran into a few of our kind." 

"What.... What you mean our kind? More X-series." Max said looking at Aspen with concern and worry. 

"A couple X-series customs and some Nomalies." Aspen stated to Max who was looking bug-eyed at her. 

"Where did you meet them at?" Max said looking around to make sure no one heard the conversation they were having, Then Max dropped her speech down to the point were only Aspen and herself could hear each other. 

"At the beach last night. Just when I was coming in from surfing after dark. As I was changing back to some street clothes, uh Hannah one of the Transgenics I was telling you about came up from behind me and touched me on the back of my neck and I just freaked. So, basic training kicked in and I had her on the ground before she knew it. For a moment we just looked at each other, then I saw her gills." 

"What a minute you saw gills. As in fish gills?" Max said looking with increasing worry growing on her face. 

"Yes, fish gills, has black hair and a off gun-metal blue skinsuit with silts for her gills. A quirky grin, and possessing a "mother that cares a lot about her children and her family" attitude that I have a full respect of. 

"Did she tell her about being captured by humans and winding up in a strip club?" 

"Yes... She did. You know her." Aspen started looking at Max realizing that it was her who had saved Hannah's life weeks earlier. "Do you want to come with me tonight when I meet with them?"

"Yeah, but how about you bring along Shadow, he might be interested in your little discovery that you made."

"Okay" Aspen said with Max's response towards seeing Hannah again. At that moment, the person that Max did not want to see again for a while given the fact that she was dating Alec. The most annoying, blond bitch, leader of S1W, wants to have sex with Logan. The one-and-only, Asha. 

"Hey Max, what is shakin'?" Said Asha, with her normally questioning and loose feelings of trying to apologize after the "furry little friends and need to shower" incident at Logan's. After Brain death and the saving of Gill Girl, Asha had come to the realization that the transgenic community was fighting for the same things that she and the S1W were fighting for, a better life and an end to the corruption that had made all their lives hell. She and Shadow would be great together. Eww was the thought came to the mind. Alec and Asha in bed. Bad enough, Shadow had the feeling of someone who was straight forward and the way that Asha was afraid of him, hell she looked like she was about to worship the ground that he walked on. What he came out and said about corruption at Manticore, and that he wanted to pursuit those who had led illegal black operations which had gotten several of his close friends killed. His feeling about those who had used their government connections to make a profit off of the deaths of his friends had made his blood boil. 

Maybe getting Asha and Shadow together to talk, might force Asha to open up more about herself. Hell Asha was this enigma and other than knowing Logan and helping him out on cases, Max felt that Asha was nice at times, but she had problems coming forward about how she met Logan and tidbits about her self. Asha was a mystery, but some juicy details wouldn't hurt. 

"Hey Asha, me and Aspen here are going out tonight, do you want to come? Shadow will be there." 

"Uh, why would you want me to go out with you guys?" Asha said looking weirdly at the two Transgenics. 

"Asha, I just want to get to know you better and Eyes heard about the "furry little friends" insult and he wants us to... " Max was trying to phrase this the right way. "Bond." Were the words from Max as she gave a distasteful look on her dark mocha colored face. 

"Eyes wants me to bond with you." Asha said looking at Max with "you have got to be joking" character on her face. 

"No Asha, Me, with you! His orders." The look on Asha's face was, priceless. 

"No shit."

"No shit is an understatement." Max said with a shrug. 

"Uh, Asha, do you have a swimsuit?" Aspen said towards the shortcut, cat featured looking blond. 

"Not really, why?" 

"We're going to the beach to meet some friends that the both of us know." 

"I'll see what I have."

"If you don't take two pairs of bras one light and one dark and a pair of shirts that you are not afraid of getting wet."

"Okay, I'll see you tonight, were do you want to meet?" 

"How about here, this way it is a common local that everyone knows and we don't have to worry about the Sector Cops bugging us in the progress."

"That sounds nice. See you tonight Max. Nice talking with you Aspen." Asha said as she walked of the bike messenger offices. Little did she know that events would lead her to learn more about Max than she ever wanted to know. 

***

The currents were moving nicely today. Hannah would soon have another fish to add to her catch of the day. The skinsuit she and the other aquatics wore allowed them to over faster through the water with less drag resistance against their forms by the rippled lines that flowed vertically down the suits. Hannah's most mature female offspring Neri was liked to her mother's back slipstream and was ridding next to her. Out of Hannah's eight offspring, Neri was the most like her father, adventurous and brave. May the stars help her when this child of her's got older and wanted to learn about the world above. After the adventure, Hannah had with the above world since their escape from their land based pain masters who controlled them since they were children. The safety of the oceans and the water would allow them to have the peace they were never allowed to have as they grew up. Then Hannah saw Sharky, and aquatic Nomalie whose large fast moving frame and brute strength had allowed them to get out of their cells and tanks the night of the fire. However, Sharky's monstrous size and predatory features made him seem like a reject for the "Monster from the Black Lagoon." He did look like a Stan Winston version of Jaw's spliced with Dwain "The Rock" Johnston with a bit of H.R. Geiger bio-mechaniod drawings thrown in to par. However, Sharky was the nicest person that she knew and his tracking skills were next to none. He could track a drop of blood from a subject for over the distance traveled from Light rise to Light fall at full speed. With a sudden rush of speed, Pos and Nani, two of the younger X-series aquatics that were staying with the pod were racing along side Hannah and Sharky. The two younger Transgenics were developing their secondary adult characteristics, especially with Nani's budding that was taking place, within a few months she would need a new skinsuit due to her rapidly expanding frame. Pos did not need one as fast for his frame due to him already being in his maturing stage of his body. Hannah felt that as these two got older, their lives would be more interesting than she and Richard's had been.. That was soon transformed by them all sensing disturbances near the kelp garden. 

"Hannah, I smell blood coming from the Garden." Sharky communicated to Hannah as the smell overwhelmed him as she looked around and took off quickly to where the garden was. 

"Sharky, do you know who it is that is hurt?" Hannah said moving at her top speed with little Neri being held in her hands. 

No, but I sense that the person is a norm, but the blood that is coming out of the individual is female and young."

"How young?" Hannah said as she moved closer to Sharky with increased urgency. 

"Young as in Nani's age. Maybe younger." 

"I'll scan and sense if there are any others around her." Hannah communicated with urgency, then she sensed Richard and Lucy in a sort of battle with two human's in scuba gear. All of a sudden, a call of distress was heard from Richard. 

"Hannah, get the others here quick, there are some Norms wanting to kill us. They are trying to drown a little one with rocks on her feet." with those words, Hannah, Sharky, and then behind them Pos and Nani were coming quickly to their aid. 

When they got to the kelp garden, Richard and Lucy were battling two humans who were attempting to keep the two Transgenics way from the young girl who was struggling for help but if she kept struggling she would run out of oxygen in her system and would drown. 

With near superhuman speed eight other aquatics had come to their aid. Richard was calling out to Hannah to give air to the bound norm. Sharky quickly came to Richard's aid and provided support by grabbing the diver's tank valves and ripping them off. The burst of air from these tanks led to the divers being forced to the surface. 

Quickly Pos and Nani went to the girl and attempted to bring her to the surface so that she could breath. That is when things started to get messy. As the two amphibious Transgenics got to the young female norm that was struggling for non-existent oxygen to breath, they soon realized that she was completely without any coverings at all on her naked flesh. The wound that was gashed across the back of her skull was leaving a trail of black murky fluid into the water. To add another knot to the problem, her legs were not tied down to the rocks; they were in the circular rock. Her feet and lower legs were in hardened concrete from which she could not escape without being removed from the substance. Realizing the problem Pos and Nani attempted to paddle her up to the surface but the weight of the concrete that she was entombed in prevented them from pulling her up the fifteen feet to the surface. Out of insight and memories of what had happened to one of their air breathing masters one time when he had been under too long. The medical crew had given him some sort of mouth to mouth breaths of air and compression to his chest to bring him back to life after Richard had gotten a hold of him during a training session and prevented him from getting the precious oxygen he needed. Remembering this, Pos took his mouth and started puffing oxygen from his land lungs into her mouth. It took about two times to realize that he was not attempting to hurt her, but to save her life. 

Then things started to get more hairy with the arrival of another person getting into the water with a spear gun. With superhuman speed, Lucy and Hannah grabbed this individual and forced his tank off him. Getting the tank towards the girl that was being tended to by Nani and Pos, the yells coming from them that they needed a tank of air to aid this girl. 

The person who they tore the tank from had gotten to the surface to the boat resting on the surface, and then all hell broke loose. The sound of gunfire erupted from above as shots of the two divers that Sharky had attacked and disabled their air tanks started shooting down into the water with a flurry of bullets. 

Lucy had been able to dive down deeper to escape the rapid percussion of bullets when she saw that the boat was moving way, she thought that was a good thing until she saw something splash into the water. A live grenade that was ready to explode. 

"Everyone get away, there is a grenade about to go off." With all the speed that she could muster she grabbed the explosive in her hands and swam straight up to the surface and exploded out of the water as she arched backwards tossing the explosive device to a save distance. The explosive wave slammed the fury Seal Nomalie into the water with enough force that it knocked her senseless for several moments. 

The battle had been great, but now this group of aquatic Transgenics now had in their hands a human that would soon have to be gotten out of the water and somewhere dry so she could heal. Hannah was going to making her meeting tonight with some company with her. This was going to be an ugly night. 

***

Asha was almost pleased that Max received barking orders from Eyes Only himself. Something told her that this trip to the beach was to bond the two. The idea of having to connect with Maxine Maria Guevara as a friend might give her some insight into knowing what Alec was like growing up. But Asha felt that the main reason that Max stated the old EO had ordered her to make nice with Asha herself might have been the lack of understanding that the two had between one another. The Brainaic and Gill Girl incidences had brought the two together in ways that was uneasy for the two of them to fully say aloud. Brain and his puppy dog crush on the very sexy transgenic had exposed the traitor within the ranks of the S1W that was giving information to corrupt police officers. The ending of this threat had cost Brain his life. The feeling that Max had lost a part of herself when Brain died put the war that she and Max were battling into a steep contrast. The Gill Girl incident had allowed Max and Asha to come to an understanding o the idea that even Transgenics cared about their loved ones as well. Dragging in an injured, Transgenics right into Logan's apartment and dropping him into the shower puts the idea that trouble tends to show up when it wants. For Asha putting the breathing gear back together for Gill Guy allowed her to start o understand that even Transgenics had problems even when all they wanted was to get their loved ones back. This human side of things made Max seem less like some bio-engineered creature to being just a scared girl who was responsible for a community that was being persecuted for all for just being different. 

Though being girly was the last thing Max wanted and Asha being comfortable about being a woman allowed her to be a bit more open about her sexuality. For some reasons max was almost phobic about it. It was as if she couldn't have sex with Logan but Asha felt it was something cultural in Max's life. Manticore from what she heard was not the type of place which one had a nice childhood at. Maybe it is the reasons that Max was so in love with Logan, a sense of normalcy and a cautious romantic who could talk gently and guide her into discovery her own humanity. In the next few minutes, Asha would be meeting with Shadow, Aspen and Max. One human and three Transgenics, not odds that she liked but se had to cope with the fact that EO was ordering this and Max was in serious trouble with Eyes himself. Asha just seriously wanted to see Max in a swimsuit; the concept would be almost humorous. Hell Max plus swimsuit would seriously equal some major questioning of how good they made Transgenic females. 

That thought was what kept Asha going as she stood in front of Jam Pony wearing two t-shirts, a jacket, and a seriously red strong skirt that hid the swimsuit she was wearing. Asha was waiting for Max to show up and the resulting effect of seeing Max show up in a pair of sweats and a tank top as she rode up on her motorcycle. When Aspen and shadow showed up in Shadow's old Millennium model blue Neon. 

Shadow looked like he had been through some serious roughness by the way that he looked. His tired faced put that he wanted to spend some down time and relax. This trip with Asha was probably his way of gather information about what she had spilled at Crash a few nights ago. Hiding behind Alec out of worry that Shadow might be more dangerous and unpredictable by not knowing what could possibly set him off to kill. Shadow's button up blue short-sleeved shirt and blue jeans gave him an appearance of seriousness. Aspen on the other hand gave off the appearance of someone who was loose and was about to party. The way that Aspen dressed demonstrated some of the sophistication of her abilities to blend in, right now, her clothing had the taste of relaxation being of a green tank top and purple shorts. On top of the Neon was Aspen's well-worn surfboard that looked like it had been through everything from harsh storms to toxic sludge. 

Asha knew that she would be riding with Shadow and Aspen during this trip and Max looked like getting into the same car as her would even test her limits. So Max decided to stay and use her black motorcycle to get to the beach. On the ride to the beach while in the back of Shadow's car, Asha wanted to start up a conversation with Shadow. Aspen had felt that she needed to bury the hatchet between Asha and herself, well not in a literal sense. 

"Uh, Asha I know that you and Alec have a history between one another and you are a little uncomfortable among others of your kind." Aspen said towards Asha who was uncertain about the situation she was in. 

"I don't know, I mean that Max feels that I am moving in her boyfriend Logan. I mean the who entire genetically engineered specifically targeted virus thing has turned her life to dog food." Asha said looking at the side of Aspen's face. 

"Whoa, you mean that Max and Logan are not getting lovely with it due to this engineered virus." Aspen said with a blow of shock. 

"Where did she get it?" Shadow said taking a glance back into the review mirror to see Asha's face. 

"Well you should know, it was cooked up at Manticore to nail Eyes Only, but due to some lab screw up it got aimed towards Logan." Asha said viewing Shadows large rimmed sunglasses in the mirror.

"Multi-phase genetic assassin Lot, DV-330?" Shadow said putting the question towards Asha knowing that if the virus was not screwed up in it being assigned to Logan. 

"I don't know, all I do know is that Max got pissed at Alec for putting paint on her virus papers." Asha said putting Max's cursed love life forward to others of her kind. 

"So, Max got the research on the virus. Why hasn't she been able to get it out of her system even before the papers were covered with paint." Aspen put forth to Asha with growing interest. 

"Well the guy who was supposed to cure the virus out of her system blew town with ten grand of Max's and Logan's money only after he did half the work it curing it." With Asha's response, Shadow knew why the virus had not been cured. She was probably searching for someone with the skills and expertise with Manticore genetics technology to get it fully out of her system.

"Where does Max keep her virus papers?" Shadow said putting forth a plan that might buy him some leverage and be able to illustrate his skills towards the illustrious Eyes Only. 

"I don't know, Max is pretty protective of those papers. She probably has them stashed somewhere she would feel that they would be safe." Asha said wondering why Shadow had wanted to learn more about Max and the virus she had. 

"I would safely say that the papers would not be at Alec's place any more." Aspen put looking towards Asha's catlike features. 

"Well ladies, we are here." Shadow said looking towards the beach. "Okay Aspen, this is your show, what time are we supposed to met with your friends here?" 

"About sunset. That was the time Hannah said that she would be her with some of her friends." Aspen said as she unattached her surfboard from the top of Shadow's car and walked onto the beach and dropped her shorts to reveal her swim briefs that she had on. 

"What do you mean around sunset. Don't they wear watches?" Asha steamed as she saw Max come down to the shore after she parked her motorcycle next to Shadow's car. 

"Well they kind of don't wear watches due to them being underwater so much." Max added as she moved next to Asha with her sneakers off and standing in her bear feet in the soft grayish tan sand. 

"Hell even scuba divers wear watches, so if I am waiting for some frog guy to come out of the water so that you all can talk to him. Well I just blew a trip to the beach for nothing. Well Max I'd think that if Eyes wants us to bond, I think we better start." Asha said fuming. 

"Asha, the people that we are going to be meeting are other Transgenics." Max put forth towards Asha. 

"Other Transgenics, Max do you mean that we are meeting with others of your kind and you dragged me out to the beach just so that I can meet some more of your buddies. Max, I'm telling Logan when we get back in town." Asha put looking towards Max. 

"Asha, you helped these Transgenics. In addition, Aspen wants to say Hi to them. Hell S1W could need all the help it needs these days so having some Transgenic Frogmen on your side wouldn't hurt." Max put forth towards Asha. "I have bailed your ass out of several circumstances and helping Gill Girl and Gill Guy reunite as a family put you on the good side of things. So, if gill girl wants to help you out by locating some corrupt government contractor or find some dead body floating in the river, you owe them that much." Max put to Asha who started looking at the Transgenic with growing concern that she had touched a nerve of something that would soon become prevalent to them. 

"Max, why are you so angry? I know that I have butted into you and Logan's relationship. And the entire virus thing has you wanting to be close to him but if you touch him, the effect would be that he would die in the process." Asha said to Max knowing that was the main reason that Eyes Only wanted them to get together, to sort our their issues with one another. 

"Asha, I never had a pretty perfect life. Manticore took away my childhood, taught me how to kill, and left me unable to function as a normal person in the real world. I've had to learn the hard way about life and what it is all about. Hell, my foster father was a sex offender who came after my older foster sister and me when I was about twelve maybe even thirteen years old. I was scared about using my powers to protect my sister and myself. Fear of being sent back to Manticore and from the outside world that I now knew. The only reason that I got out of that Hellhole was that Linda took my place when "Dad" came for us when he was drunk. I can still hear her voice as she said to run away. And I did. I have kept running away until I met Logan and he showed me that I have to fight to keep what I want in life." Max was almost crying at this point as she moved towards the blond human. Asha just stared at her with the realization that Logan was more than a person that she loved, but her lifeline to a stable world that she desperately wanted to keep at all cost. 

"God, Max. You never told me that your life was Hell. I just never thought it was literally Hell on Earth." Asha just stared there at Max for several moments as she saw the cold-blooded killing machine turn into a normal person who just wanted her life back. For now, Asha saw that Max had joined Eyes Only to ensure that those bastards that had fucked up her life were destroyed. Manticore was her nightmare world and fighting the "good fight" allowed her to atone for not being able to save her older sister who had been abused by her "father." "Max it is alright, you don't have to be afraid. You just have to be who you are. Maxine Maria, Guevara. Deal, so um, if there is any way for me to help find a way for you and Logan to be together." 

"Deal, I'll stay away from Alec as long as you stay away from Logan till I get over this virus bitch." Max said as she patted Asha on the back, a situation that Max would have made her to take an ice cube filled shower for over an hour to deal with the mere thought of being all girly with the Slutty one Woman, who was Logan's equal, Asha. 

Then there was a yell as Aspen saw a desperate Hannah running towards her as if it was life and death. The dark haired aquatic transgenic was signing as fast as she could with Aspen getting a bulk of the message and Max only getting bits and pieces but the words of I need help were all she need to rush down blurring to Aspen's side. With Max looking at the young female as she drug Aspen towards the water where she saw a Transgenic with Shark feature and two other X-series customs like Hannah holding a person in his large arms. The slow walking towards the beach by the Sharkest Transgenic, Max caught something with her eyes and it was something that she never wanted to see on anyone. A cement block was encasing the person's feet. Asha quickly heard Max call out with urgency. 

"Asha, Shadow, we need help here. Aspen needs some help. The person that they are bringing in might need some medical attention." 

Shadow blurred over to where the girl hat was being brought onto the shore and the face of a young girl looked up at the three-land base Transgenics. The fear in her eyes was very understandable for someone who had been saved from drowning. The young girl was shivering by being in the water for so long. Shadow took off his shirt and Asha had taken off her s ankle length strong to cover her. 

Asha who got a full look at the child saw that this was soon to be a case that Eyes Only would have to cover, due to how close it touched Max's past. 

The large transgenic put the girl on the ground and Shadow started checking the girls pulse and checked her legs where the cement encased her feet. Shadow looked up at the adult Transgenic female and signaled to her "How did you find her?" However, things would unfold with a level of strangeness as Asha looked down at the girls legs. 

"I'd think we better get this girl's legs out of the cement and have the story told to us in the process." The blond human said to the Transgenics around her. "I hope that someone brought a cell phone with them because I know someone that has a masonry saw that just might be agile enough to avoid cutting this girls feet off." 

"Well, we better do it soon, she is about to break out in full hypothermia." Shadow said using his medical skills to diagnose the shaking the young girl was experiencing from being in the water for so long. 

***

With Asha making a phone call with Aspen's cell phone to some of the members of S1W to get some supplies for what would be needed to aid this girl who was in need of some safety and protection from the people who wanted to kill her. Waiting by the beach for Asha's friends to show up Shadow had done with he could do to keep the girl warm with the blanket he had and Max holding the girl and keeping her body temperature stable with her hundred and one point five body temp. Asha felt that explaining herself with some of Max's furry little friends would aid in this understanding that S1W and the Transgenics were fighting for the same cause: ending corruption in the government. As the truck pulled up carrying Killer and a two other members of S1W pulled up Asha ran to meet with them to explain the situation. 

"Hey Asha what is going on here? You said on the phone to meet you at the beach with a masonry saw and power source to run it. Not to mention the list of medical supplies that you asked for. What is going down?" Said Killer with his Asian features looking towards the crowd on the beach surrounding a figure wrapped in blankets. 

"Killer, Remember the Manticore thing that Eyes Only asked for help with bringing down, and Max's help by protecting us from that Police informant. Well..." Asha paused for a moment as she thought about how to phrase the words she was about to use in the right way. "Some of Max's friends need some help when someone tried drowning a girl in their backyard." 

"So why doesn't she call the cops and bring them into this?" Said Michael one of Asha's aids who was looking at her with the question. 

"Because the person that we are helping has Gills. Literally." Asha said suddenly realizing that all that she was wearing in front of them was her swimsuit and her double pair of t-shirts rather put her off about explaining why she was with a large group of Transgenics. "Come on, I'll help you bring the stuff down to the beach." Then she yelled out. "Hey Max, you better help me get this stuff down."

"I'd heard you Asha." Max said coming up to the truck with a more growing sense that when Killer and the group met Hannah, things would get a little tricky. Considering that Hannah's last experience with normal humans was a bit of disaster for her, so introductions with Asha's friends would have to be done with considerable care. One look from Sharky the Nomalie put fear even into her; image what it would be like for Asha's associates. Hell, Asha hadn't even seen Joshua and he was a "Dog boy" so it wasn't too much to ask. 

"Hey Max." Said Killer, who was eyeing her with the opinion that if Eyes had come forward and stated that S1W was not behind the Manticore Arson, things would have been better for the group as a whole. 

"Hey Killer, so what has been happening since I last saw you last?" Max said trying to make some idol conversation. 

"Oh nothing much just trying to stay one step ahead of the law. Reading, and doing research on transgenic mutations." Killer said making the last part a joke. "So why are you and Asha hanging together?"

Max took a moment to realize that she needed to state the obvious "Eyes ordered us to hang together to understand what he did and why he did for both groups." 

"So, why did he do what..." Killer's words were stopped in mid-sentence as he saw a woman in a full body skinsuit holding a young girl's hands gently humming something to the girl. It took him a moment to realize that the two holes in her suit showed exposed gills. Then he realized that there was a creature that he would only call a monster walking over to aid him in moving the packages and the mini-solar battery pack that him and the others had in their arms. 

"Hey Sharky, I need you to lay that gear down on the sand and open it up." Said a man with dark brown hair and a slightly medium sized muscular build wearing a white t-shirt and jeans. "Asha, could you and your friends set this gear up while I started on the medical supplies. Jane Doe here needs a thermal circulation unit to warm up her blood."

"Asha, who is that?" Said Michael looking at this man who seemed to be barking orders like an EMS medic. 

"That's Shadow, he's a friend of Max's and he is a field medic. So, shut up and do what he tells you. Okay." Where the words out of Asha's mouth as she opened up the battery unit and plugged in the vibrating double bladed masonry saw which they were going to use to chip away the cement that encased the girl's feet. 

"Hannah, I need you to talk to Aspen and tell us everything that you saw and experienced about the individuals that were attempting to kill this girl?" Shadow said to the aquatic transgenic. 

The scene unfolded like a surrealistic Spanish novel, with Killer witnessing the weird strangeness of Max's world. Sharky, Aqua Lad, Hannah the sea nymph and Ocean Girl's baby sister Mera, were talking to Max's Amazon sister about a group of humans who had attempted to drown this young girl who was in shock from the dunking into ocean. The battle of how these mer-folk had been able to protect the girl and defend themselves from their attackers. Even the part about the guys dropping a grenade into the water, but what caught their attention was that Sharky had been able to obliterate the valves off the tanks that the divers had used. But figuring out why the girl was to dropped into the ocean like a sack of unwanted kittens would soon make this case something that Eyes Only would not let go of. 

It took nearly an hour for them to chisel off the block of preformed synthetic rock off her feet. The creepiness of the situation forced the group of Transgenics and humans to deal with the fact that the smell of murder was in the air. Shadow had never seen anyone have such disregard for life outside the walls of Manticore. The raw biology of this type of nightmare made Shadow desire to find those responsible and hurt them hard. The girl was shivering from what he had felt not so much from the cold but from what had happened to her. Hannah looked at the child wondering if all humans were this cruel. Asha looked at the way Hannah was feeling emotionally around trying to figure out the mystery that was stirring up emotions for all of them. 

"Asha, I'm calling in a friend. Valerie Shankar, who will check this girl out and see if we can get an Id on her." Max said realizing that they were way over their heads here. It was time to call in Logan. 

***

At Mercy General Hospital, Valerie Shankar was looking at a strange scene before her. A naked girl suffering from mild Hypothermia being brought in by Max, but what caught her attention was how good shape she was in considering the amount of scrapes and bruises that the child had. 

"Shadow," said Dr. Shankar "I noticed that you have some serious medical training. Where were did you receive your training at?" Shadow paused for a second to consider how to phrase his advanced Manticore medical training. But at that moment Max stepped in to protect him. 

"Shadow had received his medical training at the same place I did." The words just hung in the air like a clinging mist. 

"Oh the Mant Institute.." Dr. Shankar said looking at Shadow with understanding. "Field Medic." 

"Advanced." Was Shadow's answer. 

"Oh... I understand." With that, the Doctor turned towards Max and the group to explain the situation to them as Logan walked into the room. "Okay, the child has endured some major stress from whatever has happened to her before she was perspicuously dumped into the ocean. But the a bulk of her injuries are just scrapes and bruises from where she was tied up to hold her as the stuck her into that cement not to mention a major psychological shut down to blot out what had happened to her." Max looked over at Shadow then towards Valerie with a question of worry. 

"What did you find the kid's blood" 

"What I did find when I ran a blood workup on her is that she was injected with some major sedatives and hallucinogenic drugs. Now since that most of these drugs have dissipated out of her system since you brought her in. She should at least be calmer now since you got her out of the water and I believe that the ones that found her should stay nearby just she needed to see a familiar face." 

"It looked like someone wanted to ensure that no one would be able to find her body or be able to identify her." Said Asha remembering the tense few hours after Hannah had found the girl. The Aquatic Transgenic had come with them and was wearing Killer's jacket to conceal her gills from the outside world. Asha knew that she would have to cook up a water re-breather system for the transgenic to use in the next few hours to keep Hannah's strength going while out of water environment she was designed for. Given how things for this Jane Doe had gone since she had been found had shocked Hannah and her fellow Transgenics to their core. Now this child needed a protector from those who sought to do her harm. She did not have just one, now she had several who would find those who had done this to this child and make them pay. The valve from the tanks that she and her other Aquatics had taken from their attackers showed the symbols of the law enforcers of the humans. The Sector Police, and judging from the actions she had learned about what these individuals had done, they were dealing with renegade agents of these protectors. 

***

Chapter 8: Bodies in the pool, Hotels, Vampires, and Heat. 

TBC


	6. Ch 8 Eyes Only's Transgenic Operatives P...

Hidden Danger Crouching Cat.

By Shannon Hearn

The characters of Dark Angel are owned by Twentieth Century Fox Television and Cameron Eglee productions. All other characters are of my creation.

Hannah make a connection with the young drowning victim that she saved. The origin of Rain's decision to accept her now place in the Tribe of the Alive. And Rain, Jim and Melfina's having a bad day going from bad to worse. 

***

Chapter 8: Bodies in the pool, Hotels, Vampires, and Heat. 

Hannah sat in the metal and plastic chair next to the young female Cherub whose innocence warmed her heart as the noonday sun warmed her skin. The human ally of her people named Logan was taking a camera to photography the young girls face so that he could run it against his system of missing persons. 

The Human Asha who saw the part of the dive uniform which she and her people had taken from this human cherub's attackers. This pointed to the idea that there was a group of renegade humans similar to the ones that had taken her from the mating pit, which she was sold to after she had been caught in that fishing net. Now it was her job to make sure that the same fate did not happen again to another innocent. Her brethren felt the same way. 

Max came into the room and tapped her on the shoulder. "I'll take over Hannah." She said to Hannah with understanding that the water based Transgenic's strength was weakening as she spent more time out of her fluid environment. 

Hannah turned around and signed to Max "I understand, do you know where I can find water to go in?" 

Max replied "Yes, Asha and Dr. Shankar found some water for you. It's a physical therapy tank. It might not be much but it should keep you wet until Asha can find a way to keep you out of the water for a longer period of time." The look between the two Transgenics was simple, but understandable. This was a battle that the both of them knew had to be fought and must be won for all. This child needed all the help she would need. 

***

The trip to the physical therapy tank for Hannah was the longest walk for her; thoughts of that child went through her mind. The way that the child held onto her made her think of what this young one's parents would have been like. Hannah had never known her parents; all that she knew of them was the sections of the songs that she sang. A simple tune which she had had kept reciting all of her life. "The stars are the eyes of children yet to be born and have been. They watch over us to make sure that there is joy in the world." The lines of that song rang in her mind as she grew up in the tanks at Manticore. As she got into the tank of water, she looked at Killer's shirt. A person that if she had met other than those fishermen would have let her free instead of selling her for a mating dance and several glasses full of yellow liquid which made them act more impolite towards the females till a large male human threw them out of the building. The thought of being trapped like that for the rest of her life made her think about the time when she was young when she looked through the top of the caged tank she lived in and saw those two young land based versions of her kind. The simple signing that they were all able to communicate with allowed them to talk about each others worlds. Hannah looked into Shadow's face while they were at the beach and saw the young transgenic that told her about the stories of seeing the Moon from the outside through the trees. The concept of living structures capable of being so tall that they blotted out the sky amazed her. In return, Hannah had sung stories to her two friends about the sea, the moon and the stars being the eyes of children like them who played with joy and where no one yelled at them for being curious about the world around them. This was a dream that they all shared, of freedom. Now Hannah looked at Shadow with his brown hair and his blue eyes wondering where was the dark-skinned, green-eyed girl that had journeyed with him through the vents those nights when they were all children. 

"Where is Jade?" Hannah bellowed in siren speak. Shadow turned around, looked at her with worry in his eyes, and replied. 

"I do not know. I lost track of her during the fire. I am searching for her because we were breeding partners and I love her dearly." 

Hannah soon realized that the fire had displaced many of their kind, but for Shadow, it was personal. He was missing a part of his family. Hannah understood how he felt, if anything happened to Richard, a part of her would be lost. This though of sadness and hope followed her as she went to sleep underwater. 

***

Logan Cale was using his sources to scan through sector passes to identify the young girl who was sitting at Mercy General Hospital on his computer. Sorting through all the children with the facial recognition software would take time to go through the sheer number of faces in the system. The night was soon fading into day and Logan decided to use his laptop to search over the air tank valve that Sharky had torn off from two of the divers that had attempted to finish off the job of drowning the girl. The serial numbers of the tank valve had come up through the requisition log for the police marine patrol division. Once a powerful and noble organization, it was now wrought with corruption and under the table black-market dealings. The person that was the cause of this corruption was Eyes Only's old adversary, Pierpont Lempkin. 

Now Logan had to figure out why Lempkin and his associates wanted this little girl dead. Considering the amount of drugs in the girl's system pointed to the fact they wanted this girl not to put up a fight and be so disorientated that if anyone found her that they would think that she was delirious. The cement was probably the only way that getting rid of her would ensure that no one found the remains. Logan was lucky that he had allies among the Transgenic community because if it was not for Hannah and the other aquatics, the young girl would have been dumped at some hospital and she would have been sooner or later found by Lempkin's men. Now with Shadow, Max and Asha involved the girl would have a fighting chance. Now all he had to worry about is telling what he knew to Matt Sung. 

***

The phone rang like a possessed entity demanding someone to answer its summons. Detective Matt Sung of the Seattle Police Department was one of the few honest cops left on the force and reportedly being tied to Eyes Only tended to make his life hell, but making the world a better place had had its advantages. He knew that his children would be in a better world because of it. When Matt picked up the phone in his office he heard a voice that he never thought he hear so soon, Logan Cale. 

"Hey Matt, it Logan." 

"Logan, what is going on? I thought that ever since we took down the head of the West coast Italian Mafia you would lay low." 

"I thought I would. Listen, have there been any mysterious missing person reports been filed in the last forty-eight hours? I have a case that me and Max are working on and it involves a missing person."

"Logan, why don't you contact the main authorities, I mean if it is a missing person then why is Max involved." Matt said with growing interest in what Logan was digging into. 

"Max and a few of her friends found a girl a day or so ago. And given the way that Max acts around when people mess with children given her past." 

"I understand, I know that Max was part of some anti-technological cult when she was a child. So why do you want me to look into a simple missing person's case." 

"It is due to the fact that the friends that Max were with shall I say don't want the authorities to know that they were there." 

"Oh, I understand. So why are you involved?" 

"It is due to the fact the girl that they found someone had weighed her down with cement and dumped her off the shore where Max and her friends were going swimming at when they found her. I'm doing a search of the girl through the sector ID system but it going to take a while, but I wanted to warn you that there is a group of crooked sector cops and they are trying to find this girl." 

"Logan... Do you know where you are keeping this girl?" 

"Yes, with Max, a pack of juvenile delinquent vampires, a neurotic werewolf, a mermaid, a field medic, a sorceress, a Amazon warrior, a black-marketer and a friend of mine." 

"Your joking about the Neurotic werewolf part aren't you?" 

"Nope. Lets just say Joshua's size make him imposing enough to give anyone a coronary heart attack if he sneezes." 

"So, in other words you have her in a safe place. So Logan you want me to dig into finding out if about if anyone has filed a missing person's report about this individual." 

"That pretty much sums it up Matt. I'll try my sources with EO to see what he has on his end." There was a pause as a beep was heard on the other end of the line. "Matt. I just got a hit, the girl's name Kyla Maria Turner. I'll check back with you later there are some sources that I have to check first before I get back to you. Bye." With that, Logan said goodbye to Matt Sung as the line went dead. This was going to be one hell of a case ahead. 

***

Young Jane Doe looked around her environment and saw the mermaid that had saved her life. Everything up to her being in that concrete and underwater was a blank. She was new to the world, these people that had saved her life were different and they had a need to aid her. The blond woman with the cat-like features was working on some large belt-like thing with water and plastic tubing on it. Jane looked over at a bathtub and saw the woman that had saved her life get out of it and stand up and have the belt put onto her and two tubes inserted into her gills. Jane just got up out of the bed she was in and walked on over to the Mermaid and reached out her hand to feel the hand of the person that had saved her. The soft feel of the skin was comforting to her. It was a dream, and she was safe from harm. 

"Hey you. It looks like sleepy head is awake." Said the woman with the neck length blond hair as she turned away from the Mermaid whom she was working to fit the belt to. "Hannah, it looks like your little friend here wants to say "Hi" to you." 

The young girl looked down at her bear feet and started making fists with her toes. The feeling of tension flowed like a churning winter ocean. Hannah got out of the bathtub, slowly letting the water slowly drip onto the floor. The child took a step back and looked at Hannah's face, it was not of fear but it was of curiosity about her gills. The young girl reached out her hand and touched one of Hannah's gills. The light fluttering back and forth as they processed the oxygen from the water. Hannah just let the girl hold her hand on the gills and she just moved her hand down and caressed the child's hands and she bent down to hug her. Hannah just let the girl run her hands through her black hair. Asha looked at the two of them and saw a connection. Humanity did not mind what was in your DNA; it was what was in your heart. 

The phone rang vigorously, flashing and hopping on the bed stand. Asha walked over and sat down on the bed in the hotel room they were staying in. Shadow had used his connections at the hotel to get a discount for the room they were staying in, but it was under the terms that Hannah was his sister and they needed a place to stay for a few nights until their place was fumigated. The address that was given about the place they "lived" at happened to be Max's pal Joshua. From the feeling that Logan gave off is that the guy was over seven feet tall, an artist, ate Mac and cheese as if it was going out of style. What had caught Asha's attention was the idea that what Logan mentioned about the guy was that his face was one only his father would love. She would owe Josh Sandeman a huge favor. However, about Hannah, she felt like that that girl was more human, due to something about her that would summon her compassion out of anyone. This was a girl whose fear and material love brought about life itself to those who needed it. 

She picked the phone and listed to Logan voice come over the line. 

"Asha, Its Logan. So how are your roommates doing?" Logan said over phone line. 

"They are doing fine. Hannah is talking to her little Cherub and the two of them are starting to communicate. Shadow is in the lobby of the hotel doing his audit material for the night." Asha said looking over into the large Jacuzzi bathtub with the sea nymph sitting on the floor with her re-breather belt on giggling with the girl telling some joke in-between both of them in some dolphin dialect. Asha could not understand the language but the look of joy on the girl's face was priceless. 

"Hannah and Jane are getting along great. And they are telling jokes." 

"Say what..." Were the words gasped out of his mouth. 

"You heard me, Logan. Hannah and Jane are telling jokes in the bathroom." 

"Whoa, so getting through to this girl will be a bit hard." 

"No. It's going to be easy, at least she is talking to someone. But from what that little girl has been through, she has blocked out a bulk of what has happened to her." 

"Well Jane has a name, got a pen." 

"Yeah Logan, just a moment," Asha said rifling through the drawer and pulling out the stationary and one of the pens for the hotel. "Shoot." 

"Her name is Kyla Maria Turner. She and her folks were listed missing three days ago. From the data I have been able to pull up, it looks like Pierpont Lempkin is using another batch of corrupt sector cops to do his bidding. Her father worked for Internal affairs and from his case load someone has been rewriting his reports about who he has been investigating." 

"So Kyla here probably saw something or heard something she shouldn't have and she and her parents got turned into fish food." 

"Yeah, but it looks like Hannah and her bunch interrupted the process and we have her, but I think we have to contact Aspen and see if she can get a hold of Hannah's pod and see if there have been any other bodies that might be with Davy Jones locker." 

"So, sit on the Nymph and the kid until you can find the bodies of this kids parents." 

"That pretty much summed it up Asha, but I would suggest that we work slowly with this Kyla till she feels safe enough to open up about what she witnessed." 

"Okay, so I should keep calling her Jane from now on till she is willing to open up about what had happened to her." 

"Yes, but I have a few sources to check out with Eyes Only and with some of Max's friends. Talk with you soon." 

"Bye Logan." Asha said looking towards the phone in her hand as she pondered about what she and Max's people had gotten themselves into. Trouble was brewing and she was in a hotel room with a mermaid and kid who were getting along better with each other than she and Max. Life really sucked. 

***

Life really sucked for Jim MacGuyver. He was setting in his third class block of the junior high he went to. Give him a screwdriver, duct tape, shoelaces and a paperclip, he could create a cruise control for a car, but English grammar was driving him nuts. Deanna Jones who was sitting in front of him with her dark hair and sea blue eyes was putting the organization of the language into strict and operational order. For an Ordinary Human Jim was seriously curious in the way that she processed the data before them. 

"Hey Jimbo," Deanna said to him as she bent over to Jim to ask him a question. "What is it with you, you ace every class except English grammar." 

"Deanna, take your idea of perfection and shove it. I'm trying my best here, so just guide me through it and I'll see if I can help you on that history test." Jim said combing his hand through his hair with concern about making a trade with this girl. 

"Okay, I'll take the deal Jim but you have to come to the study session at my house." Deanna said putting the blackmail clamp, she held over him into position. He was an X-series and concealing what he was from the world was a high priority to him. This was one of those times that he had to talk to Max on how she handled situations like this. Blackmail just became a problem. He had to raise his grades up in the class. If there were anyway to solve this problem, he would have to do it in his terms. Heck, he only needed only four hours of sleep a night and he was making a "D". Well when he got home today at four, maybe reading over the text for the thirtieths time might make some sense of how to attack how to break a sentence up into its individualistic components. It was war, and he was going to win it. Now how do you explain a girl wanted to come over and ask you out on a study session without worrying about your secret identity being exposed would be one question that he would not like to ask Shadow when he got home. 

***

Melfina was riding her bike around with her fellow bike messengers Sky and Herbal through sector three. For the young Transgenic, Herbal's mysticism and Sky's toughness reminded her of Aspen and Alec when they were there loose personae selves. Since Aspen had found that aquatic, Transgenic and that near drowning victim things had flipped around suddenly. Now they had to hide someone from pursuers with intensions similar to the infiltrators that had destroyed command. Melfina started to have a more worried look on her face as Sky rolled up behind her on his bike. Mel rather liked the guy, well since he looked kind of like an X-series. It was almost nostalgic and comforting to her with their baldheads. 

"Sheesh, I want to lick your necks." Mel said not realizing that Herbal had over heard her. 

"You like bald men?" He said with his thick Rastafarian accent. 

The shock of what she just said aloud had shocked her. Oh Shit she was going into heat, or was she? She had to say something that would divert their attention from her. "I had a crush on this kid when I was at school. He had a bald head and it was very attractive to me." 

"Oh, so you like bald men, because of this guy?" Sky said realizing that his lack of hair would land this girl in bed with him. However, the way Mel acted around them was if she was not so much dreaming of having sex with them, but it was as if she was homesick for this bald kid in her life. 

"Yeah, I did." Then Mel went quiet. "He died a few months ago in a fire. I saw him die right before me." Mel had to stop her bike to wipe the tears coming from her eyes. 

"Sorry, Gurl." Herbal said knowing now that Melfina had witnessed someone die before her had thrown him back to his old criminal gang banging days where several months ago an old prison buddy of his was killed. This friend of his was killed when some vigilant weapon tester at Cale Industries used a modified hover drone with a facial recognition system to track down recently released felons and blow them away. Eyes Only had persuaded these rebel researchers and had the company they worked for take responsibility for the damages done. Melfina and him had something in common; they had both lost a friend close to them. His by murdering executives wanting to expand their profit margins and her with her friend dying in a fire. 

As the three of them made a corner to the private residence to drop off the eight boxes of collectors china, they ran into a very large Steelhead cyborg. What scared the shit out of Herbal and Sky was the fact that the muscles on this guy were as thick as the arms of the two of them combined along with their leg muscles thrown in as well. The metal blades on his arms just added to his imposing appearance. 

Herbal and Sky were about to make a run in the opposite direction when the Steelhead reached out and grabbed Herbal by the shirt and picked him off the ground. 

"Eddie says, no more pushing of your goods her Herbal Thought. This is our domain." The words were like a harpoon through Herbal's throat. Then the Steelhead felt a hard sharp electrical jolt hit him in his kidneys. 

"Get away from him you overgrown jerk." Came the words from below his eye level. It took him a moment to realize it was this small Asian girl with metal studs on her bicycle gloves punching him in the side. Her red zip up sweat jacket and dark blue leggings made her kind of look like a cheap rip-off of Lady Chimera. He reached over to shove her away with his large hand. However, as his hand went out to shove her down, she blurred out of the way by a few inches. The moment it took her to blur out of the way she had shoved her size six and a half foot right into his testicles with enough force to make him drop Herbal Thought to the ground. 

"Uh, Mel kicking the guy in the nuts might not be the best thing to do. Considering that this guy is three times larger than you and has the muscles to match." Said Sky looking at the Steelhead's dazed look of "What the..." on the large cyborg's face. In the time, it took Sky to think the words "We have to get out of here." Melfina had grabbed the Steelhead's free arm that he had attempted to use to knock her away and spun him around kicking the guy behind the kneecap with the same leg she had used to knock him in the nuts and drop the seven foot plus cyborg to the ground. Herbal just watched as Mel proceeded to slam the landed hand of the cyborg into the meaty thigh near his crotch then proceeded to kick the individual in the forehead. 

"Uh, Mel when were you going to mention that you were a ninja." Sky just said looking at Mel's small frame. 

"I'm a student of the Marshal art Slate Yakazi, and trust me, I went light on him." 

"What do you mean, you went light on him." Herbal said looking at the nearly castrated Steelhead that lay before them. 

"He's still breathing." 

"Oh..." Was the only phrase that came out of the two male bike messengers. 

"So, what was that about? How does one get a cybernetically enhanced human pissed at them?" Melfina said looking at the now unconscious Steelhead that lay on the ground. Then it hit her, it was the same guy that Max had warned her about the day she started her bike messenger job. He had run for his life when Max had given the code to attack signal. After She, Herbal, and Sky had to make their deliveries, she would have to learn what had caused this Steelhead to come after Herbal. Right now calling the paramedics in to tend to this guy was their priority concern as she pulled out her cell phone and called EMS. 

***

Jim was walking home from school through the sector point as he noticed Melfina on her bike ride up next to him. 

"Hey Jim, how was school today." Mel said looking at her fellow Transgenic. 

"Well Mel, I have to deal with the fact that I currently have a "D" in English grammar and I have a study session with Deanna tonight. Otherwise the day has been one big continuous mess." Said Jim as he looked into Melfina's brown eyes wondering if she had the same rough day she did. 

"I'm sorry, I just learned that one of my coworkers happens to be a marijuana dealer and some Steelhead wanted to kick his ass due to the fact that h is undercutting his competition by going fully organic." 

"In other words they are going organic and the completion is not liking it so they sent an enforcer to solve the problem." 

"Yeah that pretty much sums it up. Jim." Melfina said to Jim as she acted as a big sister over the events that had happened to them. 

Melfina looked over at the street they were on, looking back on her day. Shadow and Aspen were due back at their place tonight . Mel wanted Rain to come over so that they could spend some time together and enjoy the company. Rain may have been a human once, but now she possessed the genetic characteristics of a Transgenic. Shadow liked a challenge of dealing with genetics mutations in different life forms. Since Shadow and Aspen had found Gill Girl and the near drowning victim, Most of the older X-series had switched into full combat mode. Melfina just wanted to have someone to talk to who could understand how she was feeling. Melfina knew that Jim was going no need help with his homework, well thins would be better when they got this girl located somewhere safe. Moreover, Aspen and Shadow got off their guard duty assignment tonight from the hotel. Melfina was afraid of some of her more Transgenic features which belonged to her Transgenic DNA would speak out aloud. Melfina had to use her electrostatic organ on that Steelhead cyborg earlier in the day to save Herbal's and Sky's life. She had used her powered to sneak into the physical neurostaic interface of the cyborg's implants and just shut down a bulk of the shut down the muscle chargers that enhanced a person's strength by five fold. With the implants off Mel had to simply twist, kick, slide and fall so that the person was on the ground. Fear of letting Aspen and Jim know about her little physical deformity scared the shit out of her. She had a set of fully functioning gills behind her ears and by the veins of her neck. 

Taking up a stand with Jim they moved from one sector to another, Mel probably would like to spend some time with Hannah in learning to use her gills. The feeling of uneasiness was about to get more interesting in the next few hours. 

***

Rain was off from her waitress job at the restaurant she worked at. Meeting with Melfina later that night would be great end for her day from dealing with snotty kids and spelt ketchup for the past five hours. Rain had come to terms with the entire "Tribe of the Alive" thing and was stating to move on with her life without Marrow. Once seeing the face of evil and noticing that it made offers that looked appealing but were lies shrouded in illusion. Rain and the rest of Marrow's original followers wanted to be better than the other around them. Stronger, faster, no weaknesses or so they thought. Marrow had them addicted to his "Perfect blood," it wasn't until Max, one of the Tribe of the Alive had found her and wanted to just protect her people from harm had she and the others learned the truth. Rain and the rest of the T-Bloods were to be Marrow's cannon fodder in a war he saw coming between Humans and the Engineered. Max and her friend Logan had knocked some sense into her read about the Tribe of the Alive in that a good chunk of them just wanted to live their lives in peace and what Marrow had done to them was a crime not just to humanity, but was a crime against life itself. Rain and the others had spent weeks getting used to the withdraw effects of Marrow's blood on their systems. It wasn't until a few weeks later Rain and the others had learned the true price that they had paid. They were no longer human. Marrow's gene-splicing had taken their bodies and moved them between being that of a human to that of being half human and half transgenic. The news just left her numb for several weeks. Not Human any more... It was not the only blow she and the others had to take in their new transformed lives as Transgenically transformed Vampires. Their offspring would also not be human, they would be fully transgenic or hybrids like themselves. Max was trying to protect her people and Rain and the other T-Bloods were now part of her people. 

Rain had taken the news and gotten drunk at a bar. The raw alcohol burned her throat and sharpened the images she had gone through. She was a monster. Rain had drifted bar to bar with whatever money she had in her pocket or steal from passing people on the street with her enhanced reflexes. That was until she wound up at some bar called Crash, crying, mourning the loss of her humanity. Then in a drunken state she saw this Nubian woman come over to the table and look at her, then saw the ill done barcode on the back of her neck. The words that she heard this woman say were: "Hey Boo, one of your siesta's here needs some help." Rain's eyes were closed around the bottle of beer in her hands; all she heard next was her name being said. 

The realm of monsters who were chasing after her, black helicopters, black sedans, Men in Black carrying very large guns. Werewolves and an Amazon in Black leather haunted her dreams. When Rain awoke the next morning, she saw the same black Nubian from the night before wearing blue underwear, tank top and a pink bathrobe standing in a kitchenette area. The smell of something being cooked drew Rain off the couch she found herself on. Her head was pounding from all the alcohol she had drank, demanding to work its way out of her system. 

Rain looked down as she pulled the quilted blanket off of her to reveal that her shoes, pants, leather jacket and fishnet shirt she wore were gone. All she had on was her underwear and the yellowed t-shirt. Rain was very scared but something the Nubian woman said calmed her fears down. 

"Ya' know for one of Boo's fellow Manticore pals, you have slept more than she does in a week." 

The words shot right on through her, she knew what Rain was or close to what Rain was. She knew about Manticore and acted as if it was a normal thing to her. 

"You know what I am, and you are not afraid." Rain said attempting to figure out who this Boo was. Maybe Boo was one of Max's people and was concerned about the mess she had gotten herself into walking around the city drunk. 

"Yes sugar. Original Cindy knows that you are a bit scared but you looked like you needed the sleep. What were your dreams like, peaceful or nightmares?" Cindy had said moving towards the couch Rain was sitting on to sit down. 

"I was being chased, by Monsters, Men in Black and this really pissed Amazon with a sword." Rain said running her hands through her mess of hair. Cindy just looked at her and understood. For over an hour Rain was comforted by Cindy as she talked about her Friend Boo and the life she lived fighting to make the world a better place. How Cindy had discovered what her friend was, about "Dog-boy" Joshua and his talent for painting, and about pain in the Butt Alec who hand made Boo's life hell in her quest to cure herself from a bug Manticore had given her to kill her boyfriend due to him knowing too much about the organization. 

Rain just sat there listening to Cindy go on as she ate the mix of fried eggs and grits from the bowl before her. Trying to figure out how to word how she had been turned into a monster and just wanted to be human. When Rain attempted to say her question one way, it came out as another. "I just want to be a normal human being." 

Cindy spoke up with some basic words of advice, "Boo feels the same way. She just takes it a day at a time knowing she will not be human, but all she tries is to be a girl just for a little while. This little bit of reality check of what she is and what she wants to be is based on a simple idea called "Getting a Life"." As those words came out of Cindy's mouth as the door to the apartment opened and Max walked into the room. Rain was shocked and scared at the same time. "Hey Boo, sleeping beauty here is awake and we have had a conversation." Cindy said looking over to Max, 

"Hey Rain, Doctor Shankar called when you got upset and ran out of her office when she gave you the news of the damage of what Marrow had done to you." Max said moving over to the end of the couch where Rain lay. 

"I know Max, I was just scared of what had happened to me. I know that you are using all of your resources to protect your..." Rain paused and rephrased that, "Our people from harm. I'm sorry." Rain continued looking down into the now empty bowl before her. 

"I understand what you are going through, you're not sure what world you belong to now." Max said looking into the young hybrid. "I face the same battle everyday." 

Max faced the same battle of what she was to the world everyday. Rain was in sheer awe before Max, so Rain had slid off the couch and onto the floor and kneeled before the Transgenic before her. 

"I give myself over to you Max, I am your servant." Rain said looking up Max begging for answers. 

"Rain get off the floor," Max said bending down and helping Rain up. "I don't want you to be my servant. You are a member of my community now. I am your equal, so no praying to me, Okay." Max said to Rain looking her in the eye. With that Rain saw and experience something in her short life she had never fully felt. The love of friendship and being truly alive, Rain was human, she had never lost it, and it just had been buried under the surface by lies and illusions. From that point forward, Rain swore to herself to make sure that her life was worth living. 

When Rain had gotten the job as a waitress, she felt that her life was moving forward again. Then when Melfina came into her life with all the phobias about being around ordinary humans, Rain felt that her insecurities were like anyone else's. Honest. 

Meeting with Melfina was like connecting into a deeper layer of reality. Not sugar coated, but honest that life went on, people needed friends and sometimes even a shoulder to cry on. There were levels of Hell and levels of Heaven, considering which the levels the world was now in since the pulse. Rain and Melfina lived in different suburbs that had been merged together by fate and circumstances. Rain had started to realize that she was her own master and Max had shown her that. Getting a job and putting Marrow behind her was her first step of learning what her path in life was to be. Melfina had shown her that peoples lives could be turned to dog food and with effort and friendship from those with a caring shoulder to offer. 

Melfina and her had their secrets and had tough lives up to that point. Rain with her abusive parents and Mel with no emotional attachments other than being turned into a soldier. Somehow, the like wounds they shared allowed the two of them to heal. Friendship was key to their existence, Rain trading her knowledge of the street and it perils, Melfina trading her knowledge about how to harness Rain's new powers to their fullest. 

As Rain walked up the steps of the apartment building which Melfina and several other of her X-series roommates lived in. She got the distinct feeling that Mel was steetish about some of her unique capabilities. Rain liked the idea of changing to a more "human" appearance with her current wardrobe of straightforward gray jeans and a simple yellow sweater. Gone was her Gothic style painted Geisha lipstick pattern, it was replaced with a light brown corner to corner style along with a bulk of the braids in her hair. Rain had looked in the mirror one day after the Max and Cindy speech and saw too much of Marrow's idolized woman stair back at her. She had taken an old rag and a lot of soap and facial cleanser to wash away the old image of what she was till she hit a face that was her true and untouched. 

Rain looked at herself for an hour until she decided on what a T-Blood should look like. Keep the two tattoo dots above her nose, a couple of braids to make up some of the bangs around her face and let the rest of her hair lay flat keeping her red head band. The scar on her forehead that was part of her transformation had a bit more of a blue tint to it and she and the others had decided to make that the sign of their clan now. No longer was Rain, the Human Rain Terrell of Seattle. She was Rain Terriza of the Transgenic T-Blood clan Lighting Scar. Her purpose in life was to live it to it fullest. 

Melfina had awakened something in her, that the world had not gone Darwin, but it had decided to take humanity and shake it up some. Rain was part of a new branch of humanity, not the alive, but the enhanced. Learning about life with her new powers also meant that were new evils to face. Melfina had able to lean on her to deal with the guilt of loosing her two closest childhood friends the night of the fire. Hanging around Mel transformed Rain into more of an adult and focus upon what she really needed in life. To know that the sun would raise another day and that the problems of the world seemed small compared to that miracle each day. When Rain knocked on the door to the apartment and saw little Jim come to the door. She was startled by the fact that Manticore made Transgenics as young as Jim. Hell, he was probably the new improved model that could jump a forty-foot fence in a single bound and kick ass in half the time. 

"Hey Rain, Mel's in." Said the young four foot five Transgenic whose blond hair reminded her of Melfina's ushered her into the sparse apartment. 

"So, Jim..." Rain said trying to put the words in the right order looking around the three-bedroom apartment and towards the main living area where a pile of school books were spread around. One of the books that she noticed open was an English grammar textbook which was slimmed down by orders of the PTA to make the page bulk lighter for students to carry in their book bags prior to the pulse. The text jumped out at her as memories of Rain's childhood came back vigorously, compared to her childhood, Mel's life was a nightmare incarnate. "How's school going?" The words were as false as she could make them without sounding corny. 

"Well class is going great, except that my skills in English grammar need to be tweaked." Jim said looking down at his paperwork on the living room table with the multiple breakdowns of the sentences into their individual structures, of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. The jumbled mess on the papers showed that Jim was working his ass off trying to figure out the mess in the books. Rain just looked down and understood the problems that were coming for the young Transgenic in blending into Ordinary society. 

"Yeah, I understand. I hope that you can get through it Okay. So um, what has Mel been up to for the past few days? Other than doing her job at Jam Pony?" Rain said looking around at the current environment that she was in with curiosity. It was almost like the abandoned church that she and the other T-Bloods lived in just on a bit smaller scale. 

"Well let's see. Mel has been going to work and handling a few errands for Joshua by dropping off his art at some gallery that likes his work. Shadow and Aspen have been helping Max deal with a mess that another Transgenic wound up with and they have been pulling guard duty at some hotel for the past few nights." 

"So, Max is on another rescue mission for our kind." Rain just paused for a moment rolling her eyes around. "Right." At that moment, Melfina came out of her room from hacking on the Internet. 

"Mel..." Rain said going over to Melfina whose look on her face was a mixture of worry and caring. 

"Hi, Rain." Melfina said coming out of her room fully and into the main living area. "So, what has been happening. Any word about your missing car?" The words were like a warning and of caution. 

"Well I have put out the usual keep your eyes open for the car to the other T-Bloods." Rain said looking towards Mel. 

"I've been checking the police records and profiles on their computer system. Bad News." Melfina said looking at Rain knowing that if it "The car has been found along with a dead body." The pause of fear ripped through Rain's face of terror. Was it Marrow killing another one of his followers, or was it something worse. "The barcode was cut off the back of the neck Rain. White found them first." 

"Oh, God..." The words out of Rain's mouth were of pure terror. The name that was the most feared among her people. Ames White, the mutant hunter extraordinaire, whose only goal in life was to exterminate the Transgenic species from the face of the planet. 

"I know Rain, but right now we have to worry about if White has gotten wise about our kind. I have been using my sources on the Net to track down if the registration has been traced back to anyone." Mel said knowing that her powers to Tele-presence were going to be pushed towards their limits with this case. Logan made it look so easy when he did it. 

"Murdered, Oh, God... If this White character is nasty as you say. Survival just might be a matter of time before we have to stop him or he kills us off." The words would have future meaning at a later date, but it exlimpafied the problem that the Transgenic community was experiencing with mutant hunters on the street. 

"Rain, calm down. I have done what I have done to cover the tracks and your friends in the records system to shift the address away from you guys. Okay, so put this through your mind. This is an order to lay low. Okay. This is what Max is concerned about every day and night. This is why she sought out your Asses in the first place. Lay low and go to ground." Melfina said putting her hands on Rain's shoulders and looking the young T-Blood that was her friend in the eyes. 

"Mel..." Rain said looking into the young X6's face as tears flowed like rampant streams, "How do you know that you are being hunted everyday. How do you cope with this nightmare of there being hunters after you everyday of your life?" 

"I just know that the battle has to be won. White will go down when he slips up. When it happens, he will pay for the deaths that he has committed by his hands." Melfina said with certainty in her voice pointing out the strength of her desire to live free without being hunted like some rabid animal in the streets. The words were functioned to act as a warning and as a guide for the future when the light shown on their faces in freedom. "Hey, I'll make some hot coco till we can talk to Shadow and Aspen when they come in. Okay." 

"Okay, I just feel numb from the concept that the person had the back of their neck cut off like some sick proof of purchase." 

"It's probably his sick way of keeping tally on his score of how many his has killed." That was when the water started to hiss and Shadow and Aspen came through the door. As things on the Transgenic front started to heat up. The things on the criminal front started to develop into more lethal taste of what was to come for them all.

***

Chapter 9: Pierpoint Lempkin, bizarre stories, and whodunits. 

Lempkin hears from his men, more of Kyla's origins, Rain and Mel at Iconographic, and more Matt Sung. 

Buzz me on any questions, comments, and story ideas? I need comments about what you all think of my story. 

Oh, Spoilers:

The members of the Yahoo.com group "DA-VS3" is working on a virtual season 3 for Dark Angel. Come on down to and check us out. We're looking for writers, proofreaders and artists to help us out to make the site worth visiting. See you for the next few chapters, and comments are appreciated for both DA 3 and HDCC. 


	7. Ch 9 Eyes Only's Transgenic Operatives P...

Hidden Danger Crouching Cat.

By Shannon Hearn

The characters of Dark Angel are owned by Twentieth Century Fox Television and Cameron Eglee productions. All other characters are of my creation.

***

Chapter 9: Pierpont Lempkin, bizarre stories, and whodunits. 

For Pierpont Lempkin, business was business, and what he was hearing was not good for business. Sea monsters, Mermaids, tadpoles, these were not the things he wanted to hear. He expected results and he got results. The men that he had hired from the harbor patrol were just incompetent drunks. That little girl had seen enough of his deal to not only put him in jail for life, hell he personally stripped that girl's clothes off her body before he stuck the girl's feet into the quickcreet and added that extra level of sedative to her system to prevent her from moving. He knew that tracking down that girls parents would take time and the evident that her father had gathered from the information she had given him would ensure a conviction. From his sources within the police department Eyes Only was looking into this case. Knowing these incompetent fools, they probably drooped the child's body into the water next to the shore. If he found the girl, he would ensure that she was drowned in a tank of concrete and encase her young ass into some shore reef support. Maybe in few hundred years, they might find her young mummified body. Now it was time to find a lead on the girl and having these four fools put into vices and their head clamped down until they talked. It was time to go old school to get his results, and he was going to get a description of the divers that his men reportedly saw and he would personally go to that spot with video cameras to see the point of the "attack." If he saw anything else other than the body, that spot would be their burial mound. 

***

Richard was enjoying a swim with his pod. Several dolphins starting swimming close to him and Lucy one of Nomalie aquatics was following up the rear of the pod. Searching the kelp garden for any other evidence to aid Hannah in protecting the air-breathing child they all saved. The wheer of a boat motor could be sensed by all around them. 

Richard gave the order for the pod to slip under their dolphin and Orcas allies as they moved through the water. With gentle nudges and gentle persuasion, the aquatics pod shifted so they avoided the boat by several hundred meters. The sound that presented itself was similar to the sound heard days earlier when they found the girl. Richard and Lucy broke off from the group and took two of the dolphins with them. The hidden movements that they made allowed them to hide from boat's sonar equipment. The deploying of the remotely camouflaged marine recon drone known as the "Robo-Troute." The Fish-like remote probe moved with a minimal notice as its digital mirrored navigational cam scanned the area of the kelp field. The sensor capabilities of the probe moved into positions without being noticed by the local marine life. 

As the pod of mutants and their marine allies were attempting to avoid the boat and its sonic equipment but the robotic probe caught the image of the entire group. Little Nani, who was coping with the sudden growth spurt in her entire body, saw Hannah's children group around her trying their best to stick to her narrow slipstream. Then Sharky sensed the electronic pulse of technology. That is when he saw the mechanical fish and told everyone to scatter. They needed to find a safe place due to their location had been discovered and they needed a safe place to stay. Richard knew that they needed to contact their land-based allies as soon as possible; their base of operations had been violated again. 

***

Pierpont Lempkin had heard stories about the mutants from the Gillette Wyoming area. However, to actually see them was completely another. These creatures had gotten in his way, and given the fact that the girl was not with them, either meant one of two things, "a". The girl was dead and they buried her body, or "b" The girl was with others of her kind. Given the way that those mutants were moving, they would be heading for the shore. Now all he had to do was send a message to them that you did not mess with Pierpont Lempkin and live. 

"Boys, you get to live another day." Lempkin said to his men. "Now comes the easy part, find one of their kind and leave him in a very public place. I don't care if the person that you bring in has gills, fins, fur or scales. Just make sure that you bring one in ALIVE." Lempkin said putting emphasis on the last word "Alive." "I want every priority on the street to change to finding one of these creatures, check with our sources in the police department." 

***

Aspen's nightly surfing ritual had taken on a new purpose. Maintain contact with the aquatics. Life was getting complicated since this little quest of theirs had taken, Given the way things were going, in a few months they would have more of their kind to deal with than the could deal with. 

Aspen's riding of the waves did not bring her any peace, but knowing that just beneath the surface some of her kind were moving around the waters were going about with their own lives without the hassles that she had to contend with being among Ordinaries. However, right now dealing with another "Ordinary" surfer was driving her crazy. Quinn... The middle-aged businessman, who was a wannabe hippie, began to push her Transgenic nerves to their very limits. Wanting to slam the jerk's head into his rectum was will within her means. However, out of practicality doing it would probably wind her ass in jail, then with White and his mutant hunters. 

"Hey Aspen" Quinn said paddling to her on his surfboard. The grin on his face was sickening. Aspen knew that diving into the water was not an option due to Quinn's determination about asking her out on a date. 

"Hi, Quinn." Aspen said grudgingly to weather the storm. She secretly hoped that a shark would come along to take a bite out of Quinn's surfboard and scare the shit out of him. At least then, he would leave her alone. "So what's up?" She said as she paddled her board so it faced perpendicular to him, ensuring that he could not come along side her and touch any part of her body. 

"Nothing much Quinn, just communing with the water spirits after an annoying day with the mortal world." Aspen said shrugging her reddish mocha shoulders, as the longhaired weekend hippie looked at her amazonian-filliapino features. 

"So, you're just clearing your head. I heard that you came to the mainland to get away from your folks after some arranged marriage deal." Quinn said not shutting his loud mouth. 

"Quinn..." Aspen said giving him a stair that would have sunk the Titanic, Lusitanian, Bismarck, and the Queen Mary II in one fail swoop. "... Will you be quiet you asshole. I'm just trying to sense something." 

"What..." Quinn said looking at her wondering on what plain of existence she was on. 

"Danger..." Aspen said looking towards the open ocean more intently than she ever did. Then images of the fire and of death hit her full force. Something bad was coming their way, and it was moving fast towards them. Aspen quickly turned her head to Quinn and said several words that would give the want-a-be hippie a good sense that you should never mess with someone who could communicate with other realms of reality. "Quinn, I suggest that you move your ass out of here A-sap." 

"Aspen, what does your spirit sense tell you. Something bad is about to happen to me." Quinn said as a large shark fin emerged from the surface of the water. The look of raw terror on his face drained the blood from his tanned face. The words "Oh shit." came out of his mouth like a Swiss yodeler-singing soprano at a rock concert. The poor idiot just would not move as brains and body were in complete information shutdown between running like hell and not moving. Then Sharky stuck his head out of the water and looked at Aspen directly. Between the gruffs, whistles, and clicks Aspen understood what had happened with the Aquatics. Quinn just looked out at the scene unfold before him. Aspen and the creature from the Black Lagoon on steroids talking to each other as if it was an everyday event. 

Aspen started to move her hands around and hum something in a near mystical way. For several moments moved in a near possessed state, she communicated with the shark-man, then the creature returned to under the waves, which it came. For the longest, time afterwards Quinn just blinked at her. "Wa, Wa, Whaa at wass that???" He was able to stammer out of his mouth wondering what Aspen had done right before him. 

"That was Sharky, and he is a friend of mine." Was all she said, anymore would have revealed what she was. 

"So those other Realms that you see into are real?" Quinn said aghast of what had unfolded before him moments earlier. 

"Yes. You just got a glimpse of what I see every day." Aspen said as matter-of-factly. 

"Uh, ha." Was all Quinn was able to say as he nodded his head up and down. 

"I would suggest that you don't mention this, I'm trying to lay low from my folks."

"I understand." Quinn looked at her wondering what would happen if he told. "If I told anyone this, they would not believe me. Even if they did given your powers you could probably send a couple of demons after me." Quinn said attempting to keep his sanity from the creature he had seen.

"Well not any demons, but I know twenty plus vampires, a couple of sea nymphs, a very neurotic werewolf, a technomage, a computer hacker, an Amazon warrior, and a serious kick ass Dark Angel." Aspen said leaning over on her board towards Quinn. "But what I am, you seriously don't want to know about."

"Oh," Quinn said. "I would hate to meet your family." 

"Trust me, if they found out that you knew me you would be dead and not know it. Your death would be mysterious and if your body was ever found. It could never be identified from the pieces that would be found." Aspen finished before paddling her way back to shore. Leaving a very agape Quinn in her wake. 

***

Phoenix was walking down the street to his new car, the orange and yellow Shark that he and his friends had stolen from the front of that old church which had been used as a group house for some former gang members called the T-Bloods. The car had just the right feel for the gang, mean speed with attitude to spare Carjacking the vehicle was simple for them, toss out the driver and the occupants and just take the car with the keys already in the ignition. Phoenix and the others like him called them selves the Followers of The Marrow from the man that gave them their powers. 

Phoenix loved the newfound strength that he had. Since Marrow had found him in that alley and offered him that deal of "life to its fullest in a world gone Darwin," his life had been changed. 

Now with his love Amber, being Vampires allowed them to live free from his parents. His parents were weak now compared to him and Amber. Going in to the house and ripping the safe out of the wall with his bare hands and opening up before his father made the point clear that he was not going to be dominated by his parents again from the abuse that they had dished out on him over the years after his mother had put him up for adoption. Little did he know that the power he had would be fleeting when he saw Amber standing by the car with a group of guys in expensive running suits. Amber's shortcut blond hair revealed her recently done barcode tattoo as it blew in the Seattle wind. The look of fear on her face demonstrated that this was a situation, which they could not get out of. As Phoenix headed over to the car, he saw that Amber struggling against one of the men in her attempt to break free. It was not until he saw the sawed off twelve gage shotgun shoved into her side that he suddenly realized the people that they were dealing with meant business, and doubted a twelve gage would do the same amount of damage to them as would a normal human. 

One of the men came over with a large caliber nine-millimeter hydro gel composite glock pistol and said to him in a near whisper. "Get in the car son or you and your lady friend over there will get it." As Phoenix was being led to the car, the man added to his sentence. "No funny superhuman crap okay, we will be in a little convoy to where we can have a conversation." 

All Phoenix could do was nod and get into his stolen car and drive it off with the men that were holding them. Marrow would be pissed. Little did he know that in a few hours he would be dead. 

***

"Hey Janney, come back here." Asha said as she chased the ten-year-old girl through the old Seattle cannery. Joseph "Doc" Steinbeck watched the scene unfold before him as he started to work on a large acrylic tank with Hannah. The multi-sectioned tank that he was setting up in one of the old holding tanks was mainly for him to hold his marine samples that he collected and sold to various universities and to the local school district. Watch Hannah before him showed that his old pal Logan Cale had gotten involved with a very eclectic group. 

If a year ago, Logan had told him that he would be bringing a real live mermaid in to him to keep an eye on, he would have scoffed at the thought. But since the entire Manticore fiasco had unfolded months earlier the creatures that place would have cooked up for military purposes, he shutter at the thoughts of what these poor kids had to endure now with all the deformities they had. 

"Janney Kyla." Doc said looking down at the young girl as she came to a stop as she came to a stop from dodging a very exhausted Asha. Doc liked the idea of there being people around to talk with after his research project on environmental changes and the use of new technology to reclamation toxic land through natural means. Beings like the Transgenics could, if society accepted them, would be able to take places the Terminal City and Lakes Field contaminated by years of toxic waste and make them habitable. 

Hannah and her kind could make a living cleaning up beaches and coastal areas, and Max and her kind could clean up the land. Between both groups, the planet would be returned back to an environmental save level. Mutations such as the Transgenics would after a few generations have blended into the human genome and after a few generations all that could be noticeable of their kind would be their glowing green eyes at night. 

"Kyla, you know that we adults cannot move as fast as you, you're just too dang quick on your feet." Doc said crouching down to her eye level. The child with the clothes borrowed from the young Transgenic that lived with Shadow and Aspen fit her well. The hair of the girl was bunched up as she made her ponytail with the scrunchy that Max had given her to keep the hair out of her active face. Asha understood that the social understanding of humans and Transgenics was radically different, but for Transgenics the gifts that they gave tended to be functional or memory based of an event that happened in their lives. Nevertheless, the orange and white scrunchy Max had given Kyla been functional and new. The young girl was moving over towards Hannah to touch her on the back so that she could get Hannah's attention. The light tugging on the edge of Hannah's large gray sweatshirt that she wore and turned around to look at the little angel before her. Kyla started to use the Transgenic sign language that Hannah had taught her over the past few days. Asha had picked up some of it. Mostly the words "come," "go," "help," "friends," "Stay," "Run," "High," "Low", "Hot" and "Cold." Simple enough to make a crude sentence, but effective enough for communications about personal actions to be performed. 

Kyla was worried that Hannah would have to go, but Hannah trying her best to vocalize words with the clicks and squeals she knew of her "language" "I'll stay." The little girl started to cheer up and hugged the nymph as tight as she could. Then Asha saw something that she knew was of heartbreak and of homesickness. Hannah wanted to be with her children. Asha knew that even Transgenics had families and that they missed them. Little Kyla with her folks out there worried about her. Max worrying about her missing siblings that she had escaped with back in oh nine. Asha would be with Max tonight as word got in about what Logan had dug up about the girl's parents. 

Then Kyla went over, looked at Asha, and said, "Do you have lines on your neck like Max's." The bluntness of the question threw Asha back. Asha just looked at the little girl with awe. Ever since Max's friend Sketchy made the comment that if he was making transgenic mutants he would make them all look like her. Even if a child was making the connection like this. Hell all she needed was to put a barcode tattoo on the back of her neck and wear an exo-skeleton like Logan's and start acting like a superhero. Well she might start getting the tattoo, heck if Alec was uncomfortable about dating an ordinary girl, why not look like a transgenic. She might land him in bed. 

"Kyla, I don't have a barcode. I'm like you." Asha said taking the girl's hands into her own. The look of confusion grew on the girl's face like a contorting drain. "I'm Human like you, Max and Hannah are different due to them being born Chimera." 

"So if they're Chimera, do they have Mommies and Daddies?" The question that the girl had put forth pointed towards that the idea that the girl had taken up a safe point in her past. So moving her forward towards the events of the present would take time and why Lempkin wanted her dead was hidden in the back of this girl's mind. Answering the girl's question would open up a two-way street of what she knew. 

"Kyla, Hannah is a mommy. I'm not so sure that she knew her mommy or not, but given that she loves her children so much. She hopes that one day that you can play with them." Asha said to the girl as Hannah looked at the woman with the look of I can live with that. However, I'll wait for my kids to at least be able to walk on the ground first. Then Max walked into the room with Aspen. Asha felt that being around Max and others of her kind would give her some more insight of how Alec ticked. All she had gotten out of the deal was babysitter to a traumatized kid. Nevertheless, the progress that had happened since that first night that the found the girl was astonishing. Hannah was very gentle and caring. Though on one occasion Hannah had come into the bathroom as Asha was coming out of the shower and had caught her naked. Hannah had been fascinated by Asha's Gaelic tattoo on the base of her back. However, on one occasion Kyla had attempted to copy the symbol off Asha's back and tried doing a sloppy job of doing a rub-on tattoo on her back. Instead of the tattoo going on straight it had wound up on her side. Asha and Hannah had freaked thinking that it was some internal injury that had surfaced but fearing that Kyla would copy Hannah's. Hannah had taken steps to cover it up with her long black hair when she was out of the tub when they were at the hotel. Now Max and Aspen were there to give them an update since Logan had relocated them with His Marine Eyes Only contact. Doc had loved the company that he now had. 

"Hey Asha" Max said coming into the room with worry on her face. Something was wrong. 

"Hey Max." Asha said getting up from the floor as Kyla moved just far enough away to not to bump into Asha. "What's wrong???" The words that followed would change everything. Doc was getting some more guests to stay in the tanks that he was building. 

***

Melfina had spent the night down at the T-Blood's church. Rain and the rest of the T-Bloods felt that after the events of the past few days that having a "full blood" around would make them feel safe. The look of the gothic pictures and materials that were strewn around the church gave the feel of some monster layer. Dracula would have freaked at the sight of this place but Lestat from "Interview with a Vampire" and Spike from "Buffy" would have felt at home with their mini-television and large boom box. The mini-fridge full of blood would have been overkill in a place like this. Melfina felt that it was very comforting. Kind of like the barracks, she had grown up in as a child. Though seeing Zoë, one of the T-Bloods with a major chip on her shoulder naked had put her off. However, the tiger stripes on Zoë back reminder her of one of the "Stripes" that she had a crush on at Manticore. However given the circumstances of what had happened to the hybrid transgenic that was killed had scared the crap out of everyone. 

"Hey Mel," Rain said as she came over to the cot she was sleeping on. Rain's oversized black Ozzy Osborn t-shirt that said "Dysfunctional Family" concealed her figure. However, Mel wondered what it was like to have parents. The other T-Bloods looked at Mel like she was their savoir, but Rain had put it that thought out of their minds. 

"Yeah, what is it Rain." Mel said turning around on the cot and leaning up to look at Rain in the eyes. At that moment, Rain caught a look at Mel's eyes. 

"Oh, shit... Your eyes.... there... Their...." Rain Stammered out as Melfina blinked for several moments at her Vampire friend. 

"What is Rain is there something in my eyes?" Rain just stammered for a few moments until she was able to get the words out of her mouth. 

"Yes, there is something in your eyes. They're glowing." Rain tried to put it toward her Transgenic friend. 

"So..." Melfina said as she looked at Rain with the "duh" look. 

"They're GLOWING..." Rain exclaimed waving her hands around. 

"Yes, they glow. All Transgenics eyes glow in the dark. It's the way we are." 

"Oh..." Rain said looking back at Melfina as the weirdness of the green glow started to calm her down. 

"So, Rain. What did you want to tell me before you freaked and found out that I have night vision." 

"Well I heard that since everything that has happened. Maybe that you could contact Eyes Only or maybe Lady Chimera." Rain said looking down at her friend. "Well since you know all that Military computer stuff..." the line was to come was almost priceless. "Call him or her up." 

"Rain, Eyes Only or maybe Lady Chimera might be interested in learning about what happened to the T-Blood that had been killed. He might be even on the case already." Melfina had completed saying to Rain. "Listen I have to go to work tomorrow and I have to do a rush delivery, so how about we meet somewhere to talk about how to communicate with Lady Chimera or Eyes Only." 

"Okay, Mel." Rain said seeing Mel's glowing green eyes twitch as she grinned back and Rain moved back to her bunk and slipped under the covers to go to sleep. Melfina looked at her friend's breathing as she turned around in her bed and went to sleep. 

Melfina's dreams took on a weightless feel as she swam through the water before her. Mel's gills took in the oxygen form the water and expelled the waste carbon dioxide from her system. The black tube top and spandex shorts she wore clung to her frame as she navigated through the weightless environment, then she slammed into the data reality of cyberspace. 

Mathematical fractal equations formed into virtual statues and archaic landscapes. In the water, Melfina saw a young girl hovering near a woman with gills holding each other. The feeling of love and caring filled her heart as she felt wonder of what the world was. Mel wanted to reach out and touch the girl's face but something grabbed at her and dragged her away with incredible force. The effect of her screams went unheard as another image came into view as she slammed into the floor of an art gallery full of paintings. The paintings had a cartoony signature in the lower right hand corner. "Joshua." 

Mel got up off the floor to walk around then she witnessed another figure nearby. It was a young woman curled up in a ball rocking back and forth. The blond hair was short and the back of her neck was revealed a barcode. A Transgenic, Manticore series barcode in all its infamous lined glory. Then as Mel was about to tap the person on the shoulder an face of an older "Ordinary" with an evil grin reached over and grabbed her with both of his hands and said the words that sent fear down to the very core of her being. "Hello my lovely, now it is time for you to die." 

That moment Melfina shot up out of cot, she was on like a speeding bullet. The roll of cold sweat on her body had saturated her bedclothes and her heart was beating so heard that her breastbone was about to be forced out of her chest. At that moment one of the T-Bloods named Aura, who was wearing the total black dress of her Bruja witchcraft heritage, came to Melfina to comfort her. 

"Mel are you alright?" Aura said as her raven black hair flowed down her head like a black shawl. The Black Ski cap she wore made her look like the Blair Witch incarnate. Mel just held herself trying to shake the images that she had just experienced in her dream. 

"Yeah, I'm Okay Aura. Just had to deal with the fact I had a funky dream." Mel said looking up at the young witch. 

"Do you want any herbal tea or something?" Aura said looking at the shaken Transgenic. 

"No." Then Mel thought about it then considered the offer as Aura slowly walked away. "Wait... I would like to have some of that tea." 

"Okay, I'll make some." As Aura walked slowly away, she suddenly stopped for a moment as and turned around to look at Mel waiting for her to reconsider the offer she had made. "Uh, Melfina. The dream that you had... I mean I heard that your kinds have mental powers... was the dream like a vision or something that you have to do?" The words were the eerie to what Mel had experienced. 

"Yes. It was a vision. It has to deal with what has been happening over the past few days." 

"Does it have to deal with the others like us?" 

"Yes... However, the images are non-coherent. I won't know what they mean until they fall into place." 

"So in other words, only time will tell whether or not it is true." 

"Yes." 

For the next several hours, Melfina rested as she enjoyed the tea as she looked out the old church's window to the city. What did the images mean? Something about the girl and the art gallery, it was important and it had to do with the girl that Hannah had found several days earlier. Something major was going to happen and it was tied to art. 

***

The night had gone well, and morning had come up with a happy smile. Melfina had hated it. She would have to go to work, the thoughts of the dream she had were swarming through her mind. The bike ride through the sector checkpoints had made her wonder about this mystery that had been unfolding of what was going on. Mel rolled into Jam Pony, moved over to the front desk, and punched in her time card. 

OC walked over to Melfina and looked at her, the look on OC's face was that of concern. Mel still felt that OC was a creature that gave her the creeps, but she started to trust the Lesbian Nubian with more frequency. Right now Mel needed someone to talk to. Rain and her friends had left Melfina fearful of what had happened. There was a dead T-Blood and Melfina had used her tablet computer to dig through the files that she had dug up off the police computer mainframe and off Logan's computer from the informant net. This Matt Sung individual who Logan was talking to about the case they were involved in might help them out. Kyla's dad happened to be an internal affairs officer who was looking into Lempkin's control of high-ranking police officials. The Kyla, from what information Logan had dug up on her was unsettling. She was listed as being in the middle of a custody dispute between her parents and that her mother was leaving her dad for someone less inclined to be in dangerous situations. Whatever the reasons Kyla was old enough to understand that she was not the center of the trouble with the family, but Lempkin had turned their peaceful lives to dog food. 

Melfina wanted to talk to Matt Sung about what was going on with the case with Kyla and the murdered T-Blood but how would she say it. "Oh, I'm a Transgenic mutant who thinks that the murdered gang member that was dumped in front of the police station might be connected with the disappearance of a child of an internal affairs officer." The idea sounded almost startling to her. She needed to talk with Logan about this. How did the guy keep his life as Eyes Only separate from his life as a journalist without being in conflict about what came first? 

The lives of Ordinaries were a mystery to her. She needed an X5 to talk to about what was going on. Then reality of working hit her hard as she was tapped on the shoulder by Alec. 

"Hey Mel, I need you to make a delivery for me in sector 15." Alec said as he moved towards Normal to pick up a package earmarked to a completely other side to the city. "Normal wants me to do all my deliveries on the other side of town and I have favor that I have to do for Joshua. Could you take this down to the Iconographic Gallery and drop it off, the woman will give you an envelope. Take it and deliver it to Josh for me. Okay." Alec finished as he moved out the door; the large boxed package that was lying by her feet was the size of her bike. 

"Alec..." Melfina screamed at the blond Transgenic walking out the door leaving her with a package, which she needed some help with. Then she looked at Cindy who was standing before her. "Cindy, could you help me get this down to where it needs to be delivered." 

"Ya' Shockley." OC said towards the Asian Transgenic. "I won't mind, but I just want to know what is in the package when we drop it off for Mr. Cruzin' there." 

"Alright, but afterwards I have to meet a friend of mine. Okay." Melfina said looking at OC as the lifted the ungainly package between them and put it on one of the Bike Trailers that the company used from time to time to carry large items. Within a few minutes, the two girls had left the building to make their delivery, but not before Melfina had made a phone call to Rain to meet them at the Gallery where they were going. Little did she know that the events of her dream were about to unfold with blurring clarity before her. 

***

Amber was scared to be anywhere alone after what she had seen done to Phoenix. Those men had taken the both of them to some warehouse and started grilling them about where was some girl. The repeated question was: "where are the others of your kind". We want to talk with the ones that have the girl. The picture of dark-haired Spanish Scott girl that they were both shown did not register with the either of them. After three hours of questioning, one of the Grunts had started up on Phoenix with a pair of iron knuckles and started beating him to a pulp. 

She had seen Phoenix's pride be torn down, as with every blow given when he did not give them the correct answer that they wanted. Then what had happened next was too horrifying to talk about. The image of them cutting the flesh off the back of his neck and gouging the arteries by his neck in front of her had made her puke her guts out. Then a man in the shadows ordered the men to take her and the body of her lover somewhere public and leave them. 

Amber had expected them to kill her when they got to the local where they were to be dumped. However, they left her alive to deliver a message to her kind. They wanted the child or more of them were to die if their demands were not met. That was several hours ago and she had made her way to this art gallery. There were a lot of people here and for some strange reason the proprietor of the establishment had just let her be. It was as if the proprietor who was watching over, her knew about some great secret about what she was. She just sat there crunched up onto a ball in the center of the gallery. However, she was waiting for the right time to talk with her about what was scaring her so badly. Amber had spent the past hour sitting before the same painting by some guy called Joshua titled "Little Fella in Chair." The image brought her very little peace. All Amber could remember was the last time she and Phoenix had held each other passionately in that rich guy's apartment and the mess that both of them had made in the kitchen with the leftovers from the fridge from their food binge. 

The warmth of being in each others arms and the feeling of invincibility that they had in taking what they wanted when they wanted at any time. Now all she saw before her was the nightmare her life had become. She prayed to God for deliverance from this hell she was in. However, she hoped that everything she had done in the past three years would be taken away and she would be given a second chance at life. Little did she know that fate was going to send help in the form of a girl with friends in very high places.

***

Mel hated the traffic, the cart that was behind her was moving like a drunken bull in a china shop. The sooner that she got this package delivered the sooner she would have to get rid of this dangnabbit contraption and ride her bike normally again. As she made the corner with OC right behind her, the large art gallery showed up before her and she thought that no structure other than the main training complex at Manticore was that big. As she and OC entered the building, the ungainly package behaved like a blind elephant on Valium towards the door. Alec would owe her big time for this trip even though it was for Joshua. Then her lie as crap was changed to something better when she saw Rain. The appearance of her friend changed everything for her, in the crappy day that she was now having was to be changed to something that was at least tolerable. 

"Hey Melfina, I got your call about meeting you here." Rain said moving up the steps as Melfina and Original Cindy chained their bikes up to a cement street guard. Melfina looked at the clothing Rain was wearing and noticed that it was more relaxed than what she usually wore in the urban ready combat garb or the Gothic street clothes. However, Rain's garb was a simple flowing dark blue full-length skirt and a white button up close form top, The feelings of connecting with the rich and the "middle class" as it were pointed towards blending in. 

Rain just looked at Melfina for several moments as they went over to each other and hugged each other. Then OC butted in when she realized whom it was Melfina was hugging. 

"Well, well, well, isn't it little Miss vampire." Cindy said looking at Rain with growing interest. "It looks like you have toned down on the Gothic and gone professional." Rain took a step back realizing whom it was talking to her. It was Max's roommate Cindy and given the way, that they were talking Mel and Cindy knew about each other. 

"Yeah, it's me OC, I've done some growing up since we last met." Rain said looking at Cindy. All their lives had changed for them all now given the stress over the past few days. Meeting with Mel would at least put her emotions at ease and allow a temporary escape from the pain of the death of the Transgenic Blood humanoid. 

"So, Rain, Mel, shall we enter so that we can make the delivery." OC said unstrapping the package from the back of Melfina's bike and handing the package over to Mel. With that the three of them entered into the gallery little did they know that they were about to encounter a link that would tie a murder to an attempted homicide. 

When the three girls entered into the gallery the immense size of the place had caught Mel off guard by the idea that people would dedicate part of their lives to create something of a symbolic nature of their emotional state. The trip over to the main front desk was sort of not out of the ordinary with the dropping o of the package. It was not until Mel got the signatures filled out by someone named Rita that something was different about this person. As Mel was about to walk over to Rain to say hello, the woman who had signed the form took a look at the package that she had delivered and had asked her and Rain to join her. 

"It is amazing that Joshua's more recent works have demonstrated this amount of emotional strength." The Nuevo-rich Nubian said as she examined the imagery of the painting. Mel and Rain were not prepared for what they saw displayed before them, it was an image of Melfina in some sort of bottle or tube, which she was fighting against. Behind it, someone was attempting to pull Melfina out of it, was a figure in black that was dripping in blood. Then there was the mystic that was standing on a road for the characters to walk on. The painting was so biographical in how it pointed out Mel and Rain's connection to each other. "The strength of these two girls that are by the bottle represented someone attempting to break free of her past while connecting to someone who is cover in blood. Some of the imagery is dark though. What do you think?" The way that the questioning was done, it was as if a part of her wanted to perform a full escape and evade from the premises at that moment. However, it was something that kept her from moving. "I don't know. Ma'am. I'm not a critic, I just do deliveries." 

"So, How is Mr. Smart doing?" Rita said looking at Melfina. 

"He is doing well considering that he has been doing a few side businesses on the side." Melfina said looking at the woman who was exploring the piece of art. 

"So, How is Joshua doing?" 

"He's doing well considering what has been going through in helping others out. " At that moment, Mel realized that she had been tricked into talking about Joshua. How much did she know about him? Then she gulped so loudly that it was probably herd in China. 

"I apologize for intruding, I know that your people do not seek attention but Joshua's talent demonstrates your individuality." Rita said looking at the young Asian Transgenic then Rita looked over towards Rain to the see the barcode on the back of her neck. 

"Listen, I know that Joshua is different from the rest of your people and that you know him." Rita paused for a moment as she looked more intently at Cindy as she walked with Rain looking at the exhibits. "Listen there is one of your people here and she looks pretty rattled." 

"You know what I am, and you are not afraid of me." Melfina said attempting to figure out what this woman wanted from her. 

"I know because I met Joshua several weeks back. He came in through the skylight to get back Joshua number two. I confronted him and he revealed who he was and what he was to me." 

"You called Joshua, the One and Only Joshua and said that he had found his muse in himself, and you said listen to it. He has." Mel said glancing around and trying to figure out what Rita was trying to tell her. "So tell me about this member of the community that you said was here other than me and the friends that I cam in with?" 

Rita looked over and studied Melfina's physical appearance. This was one of Joshua's people who was getting concerned about finding another one of her people in such personal distress. "Ms. Rita, Ma'am. Could you tell me about the Chimera that you found, You say that she is scared?" Melfina said attempting to gather information about the Transgenic she was about to meet. 

"Well the "Chimera" as you call her has been sitting in one of the main galleries just staring at the same painting for several hours now." Rita started to move away as she started to lead Melfina to one of the galleries that held many of Joshua's paintings that he had done over the past few months. "The strange thing is that it is as if she wants to be someplace public as if she is afraid to be alone." Melfina just tagged along as she noticed that OC and Rain were moving with them as well. "Your friends seem to be interested in not letting us be alone." Rita added in seeing a black Nubian woman and a pseudo-gothic woman trailing them with growing suspicions. 

"Yeah, it is just the way we are given the situation we are about to enter." 

"Oh. I understand. Well here she is. She has been sitting her since we opened this morning." Rita said gesturing towards the blond curled up into a ball staring at Joshua's picture of "Father". The steps that Melfina took towards the blond were eerily to the ones that she had taken in her dream the night before. She decided to take a different approach to meeting this X-Series by walking over to her face first. The similar scar on the face to that of Rain stated that the girl was a T-Blood and Mel decided to signal over Rain to handle the situation. 

"Rain, I think I need you to come over here and take a look at something, I believe that it is important?" Rain walked over to where Melfina was standing and saw the girl's face she knew that their problems were just beginning. 

***

Matt Sung was sitting at his desk going over the information that Logan had given him about the missing person case. Whatever Lempkin had on Kyla's father was starting to worry him. Logan said that he would bring in a friend of his to look at the guy's computer system to get the information out of it was of key concern. Whatever information was on Gene Turner's computer could show where the guy had fled to with his wife. That little girl could be a key piece in bringing Lempkin down for good. Then his phone rang. 

"Hello, Detective Matt Sung, Robbery Homicide, who may I ask is speaking." He said over the phone line. 

"Detective Sung. This is a friend of Eyes Only, Lady Chimera. I need to meet with you tonight, your pal Logan will be with me. I have information about the person that was killed and dumped in front of one of the precincts a day or so ago." The voice said with unetching clarity, Matt just shot out of his chair as if he was hit by a hot poker. 

"How do you know about me and Logan?" He said looking around the room for hidden microphones. 

"Detective Sung, I have accessed Eyes files on you and Logan with his permission and they were an interesting read." The voice said putting the facts to him in an almost musical way. "Listen, when you next speak to Logan tell him to tell you about T-Bloods, what they are, how they were made, and about the mess they get into. Once you hear it, you will understand the witness that we have found. Oh, one more thing, I am talking through the police automated switchboard so tracing this call will impossible." 

"Why should I trust you?" Matt said attempting to figure out who was one the line. 

"Because you helped Logan's friend Max out on several occasions and I have a high respect for her, and she has a respect for you as well." 

"So contact Logan if I want to meet with you." 

"Yes." 

"I'll see about it." Matt said has he hung up the phone and looked at it for several moments. He needed to contact Logan about this Lady Chimera. If she was involved, were the Transgenics that Eyes Only had talked about months earlier starting to get concerned about what was happening in Seattle. Then he remembered something about the crime scene that was not put into the papers. The person that was dumped had a section of his flesh cut off of him. If the person killed was a Transgenic, then why use Logan to contact him? This was turning into an interesting situation to be in. That is when he made the decision to call Logan. If Chimera was right, then Eyes Only was getting information from the Transgenic community about their kind being missing, then what were they given him in intelligence. 

***

Logan was checking out his contacts from his various Eyes Only sources about what Ames White was up to and where he was. After the death of Wendy Olson and the discovery of the Breeding Cult, that White belonged to were more dangerous than any threat that Eyes Only had faced. Well taking steps to keep an eye on where White was at became of priority concern. As Logan was checking up on his latest intelligence from the Informant Net, the phone rang. In clear Black and Grey numbers and letters stated it was Matt Sung's Cell on the line. 

"Hey, Matt its Logan, so what's up?" Logan said from his chair. 

"Logan, does Eyes Only know about Lady Chimera accessing his computer files because I had the weirdest call made to me." The voice of the detective was stressed and worried. 

"Yeah, I know about what Chimera has been up to. Eyes let her have access to some of his files as a sign of good faith. She is helping us out in following up leads about this disappearance case." 

"Well, I got a call from her today and she said that she had a lead to the case that we are working on." That perked up Logan's attention. 

"Tell me Logan, how is she involved in the case? How the heck did Eyes Only and Lady Chimera start to working together?" 

"Some of Chimera's people found Turner's kid when a few of Lempkin's men attempted to kill her. Subsequently several of Eyes Only's informants within the Transgenic community contacted me about it and it has been a sort of joint operation to sort out this mess." 

"Well Logan, she wants to meet with me and you will be there with us." 

"What!!!" Logan yelled into the phone, causing Matt to pull the phone away from his ear. Then there was a beep; it was his other line calling in. The phone number was of Shadow's apartment. It took him a moment to get off the shock and knew it was Melfina making the call. "Uh, Matt give me a moment to talk to Lady Chimera, she is on the other line." 

"What the..." 

"You heard me right Matt, I think I was the last person to be informed here. I call you back in a moment." With that Logan disconnected the line from Matt's cell phone and switched to his incoming call that he took with a not so pleasant attitude. "Melfina, I know that it is you, and when were you going to tell me about you contacting Matt Sung about a lead that you had dug up." The words that came out of Melfina's mouth were such that that she had a lot of explaining to do. 

TBC

***

Author's note: 

Bruja are seen in Chicano literature as being individuals of power and respect. Though as being seen as connected with the "dark arts", there are good Bruja and bad Bruja the same way that there are white witches and black witches. The manner which a Bruja uses their powers for others around them and for themselves is how they are judged to be good or evil. 

Oh, the character of Aura, is a reference to a Bruja that is mentioned in a Carlos Fuentes Novel "Aura" as a Bruja that could change into young girl and a black cat so that she could reclaim the soul of her dead husband who has come back in another body. 

Be warned, I'm an English lit major with a background in history. So keep your eyes open of stuff that is on the strange but true side in the chapters to come. 

***

Chapter 10: Meetings, Big Trouble, and Asha Barlow Skinny-dipping and Max at the beach. 


	8. Ch 10 Eyes Only's Transgenic Operatives ...

Hidden Danger Crouching Cat.

By Shannon Hearn

The characters of Dark Angel are owned by Twentieth Century Fox Television and Cameron Eglee productions. All other characters are of my creation.

***

Parental advisory: This chapter is rated "R" due to it containing sexual content and nudity. 

***

Sorry about being so long in getting this chapter up, but I have been busy with school. I would like to thank Brin, Yarr Harr, and Johan for helping me move ahead with the story. Oh, and Johan, Johna is roughly based on you. So, to my two Muses and my European friend, I deeply thank you for giving me the kick when I needed it. 

Oh, Shadow's and Jade's love scene was made emotionally gooey on purpose for the mood that they have. So, don't shot me for allying with FF.Net's rating policy, the mood and scene just unfolded that way.

Now on with the story.

***

Chapter 10: Meetings, Big Trouble, Search for Dad

Melfina had spent the last hour or so attempting to put Logan's mind to rest. What she did not know was the speed that Detective Matt Sung would have contacted him. Mel just was setting by the sidelines as Rain and Aura used their past experience with Marrow to put Amber's mind on the right track. Shadow was having a field day with Valerie Shankar in their attempt to stabilize the Amber's physiology and make sure that she did not under go a Grand Mal Seizure. When a Grand Mal Seizure hit a Transgenic or even an ordinary Human, the dump of Serration out of the system would be fatal if it was not checked. 

Forcing Amber to drink an entire pint of Milk to maintain her blood chemistry at near gunpoint made the entire group feel better about what had to be done. Aura was using her magic and even offering herself to be drank by Amber so that the younger T-Blood could be snapped back to reality and common sense. For the most part Melfina was waiting for Logan to show up so that she could explain to Matt Sung and him what she had found out. Limpkin was attempting to frighten the Transgenic community to cough up Kyla so that he could lure out her parents. The man was at least predictable about what he was up to, so all they had to do was play the game by their own rules now. 

Logan and Max entered the T-Bloods Church to see the eclectic group of Transgenics and humans working to help figure out what Amber had been witness to. So far, in the past few hours, they had been able to deprogram her of the control that Marrow had over her and get the information out of her of which way Limpkin was moving with his plans to find Kyla. For a small child, the kid could make some enemies very fast. 

"So, tell me what you all have dug up about what Limpkin has been up to recently." Logan said moving towards Shadow as he slowly removed the needle from Amber's arm that carried the protein supplement Dr. Shankar had created to stabilize the Transgenic mutations in the T-Bloods systems. It was working to ensure that Amber's transformation was to a point where she would not have the shakes as bad as she did when she was hooked on Marrow's blood. 

"Well Logan, Amber here is able to at least answer some of your questions about what she saw. Nevertheless, from what she has said already, Kyla is seriously wanted by this asshole. The sooner that we learn what this kid saw, the more of an edge we have." Shadow said looking over towards Rain as she was bringing in pimento cheese sandwiches. 

"I hope that your friends Asha and Aspen are working to get that information out of that kid's head. Because the sooner she remembers the better, I just want to get back to living my life in peace." 

"So, when are we meeting with Matt, Lady Chimera from what I heard needs to talk with guy about what she had dug up." Melfina said going into the part of someone what was oblivious to the real identity of her alter ego. 

"Yeah, Mel. I don't know what you did to contact that girl but I sure do respect what you did." Said Hayden the toughest of the T-Bloods who started to become one of the warriors who was charged with protecting their kind from discovery. His main concern for the past week or so had been locating the Jeremy's missing car. Mel had been moving up to him as someone that she might decide to date when the current mess of events had calmed down. "I hope that this meeting with this cop and Lady Chimera goes well because I feel like causing some chaos on the guys that killed the T-Blood and dumped him by the cops. I want to kick some serious ass." He said as he pulled out the Viking Broadsword that he had and spun it around in an elegant display of old school use of every surface to fight with. He was no Aril Flynn, but a kick ass, FedEx your ass to you fighter. Mel and Rain had drooled over his use of his sword and they wanted to get into shower with him. However, they had to save that thought until later. Now Melfina had to meet with Matt Sung and decided to announce to Hayden and every one in the room. "Hold that thought, until I get back with Logan." With that, she packed her gear up into her backpack and left with Logan. This would soon to be a night she and Matt Sung would not forget. 

***

Matt sat in his car by the Docks; he would soon know whether this Lady Chimera could be trusted with what he knew about the Eyes Only Informant Net. The herbal tea that his wife had made for him to calm him down was not working, though it was adding years to his sex life given what was in it. Then he saw a flicker of lights coming up the drive he was on. The headlights of Logan's Pontiac Aztec he could recognize anywhere, Good Old Betsy had been through more gunfights and taken more rounds than had been ever shot during the Mexican New Years Celebration last January. As the Aztec pulled up to where Matt was parked, he noticed that there was woman with him, and it was not Max. 

When Logan stopped his SUV and got out Matt's jaw hit the ground, when he saw Max get out from the back. The woman that was sitting in the front with Logan looked to be an Asian girl in her mid-to late teens. However, the thought of seeing another Transgenic after the one that he had shot may have made him a target for retaliation. It wasn't until he saw Logan get out and walk over to him with a calmness which he had never seen before. 

"Hey Matt, I'm here with Chimera. I believe that you better talk with her." Logan said as he walked towards the front of Matt's car. The tension that flowed the situation was slowly elevated as Max got out of the Aztec with the Asian girl, the way that the girl walked was as if she was nervous about this meeting but putting her best poker face forward. 

"Matt Sung, may I present Lady Chimera, A.K.A. Melfina." Max said walking beside the girl. Matt was shocked from the idea that this little kid was the one that hacked Eyes Only, got hold of his files and had contacted him since that broadcast several days earlier. 

"Pleased to meet you." Matt said looking at the kid with a growing curiosity about what this kid had dug up. 

"Same here," Melfina said looking at Matt as she brought out a computer tablet. "I know that you are afraid of the Transgenic that you shot. I know that you were just trying to defend you community from a treat that you perceived." Mel said trying to relax the situation. "I'm just glad that you stopped that madman from unleashing that toxin on the world and preventing other from enduring the fate of those who had died." 

What had caught Matt off guard was the fact that the toxin that some whacked out geneticist had cooked out in a lab was genetically targeted to specific ethnic groups by particular proteins in their bodies. The look of concern in her eyes was understandable; she was worried about the fate of her community and its fate. 

"What do you have for me?" Matt said as Melfina scrolled through her system, brought up what she had recently discovered as well as the background facts of how Hannah and her group had found Kyla, and saved the child's life. The entire dumped body as Limpkin attempted to flush out the Transgenics that had the girl and the witness who was there when Phoenix was murdered. What it added up to was a very nasty situation that needed to be resolved as soon as possible. 

***

Aspen was sitting with Asha as Shadow had taken over the duties of watching over Hannah and Kyla. Kyla wanted to start playing with Nani as she was intently watching several old movies on DVD. Between the two children, Shadow knew that they would at least be occupied for several hours as they watched the Emperor's New Groove. Though the idea that Yezma, the mad genius villainous of the film did remind him of Madam X with her plot to take over the world. Why didn't he just let the situation move in a better style on containment? Well he couldn't argue over spilt milk. The situation was the situation they were in and it couldn't be helped. 

Shadow walked over to the tank, which Hannah was sitting in with her children. What he did notice was that several of her children had become larger since he had last seen them several days earlier with their small tadpole like bodies growing chubby human appendages on them. Though their tails had not shrunk down and become incorporated into their bodies, he had started to notice that several of the kids started to show more of their primary sexual characteristics and from the look on Hannah's face she was just happy to be with her children. 

What Shadow had started not notice about Hannah was that she was holding a finger from one of her hands out to one of her youngest children and making her hold on with the chubby hand and ride through the water. This image brought him back to thinking about his mate Jade. He wondered if she was with child or not. Was her belly growing to accompany their child and was she all right with the new yet ancient stresses that were being placed on her body? 

Shadow remembered the first night that he and Jade were ordered to conceive. The situation had been awkward but they had to do it or be placed into the hole for none compliance. Shadow had slowly taken his time in getting to know Jade again by them just talking for a bit to catch up on their past missions and their experiences in the outside world. Most of all they wanted to be free. They wanted their child to be free and live a normal life. At that moment, what they did next was not for Manticore, or for orders or for the nation. It was for them. The life that they were to create was going to be born free. With that thought in his mind and in Jade's, he had taken the blanket off her bunk and had laid it on the floor. They had both taken their boots off and had sat down on the floor looking into each others eyes. With him removing his shirt, the mating process was to begin as he leaned into Jade's face and kissed her gently on her full lips. The fear that was sunk in the bottom of their stomachs pulled at them as he helped her out of her clothes and she his. The smell of her mocha brown body and black hair was still rived in his mind, the dimple on the side of her mouth, the gentle crease of bone showing where breastbone started, the soft mounds of her perfectly rounded breasts and buttocks that felt like warm cup of milk. Shadow had felt her hands trace over the muscles of his chest and scratch lightly the flesh on his back. 

They intertwined their bodies together sensing the ancient rhythm of nature call out to them. The movement of his manhood inside of her womanhood moved under a force that Manticore could not contain, it was the glory of life itself within their passionately embraced bodies. The sound of Jade's heart as it beat inside of her lovely frame that he squeezed close to him as her knees locked around his frame to support her body during their lovemaking. The images of all their friends who had fallen in battle, who had died for causes that were not just, were not for pride, but for money and ambition. The child that they were conceiving was to be born free of this because at that moment they knew that there was to be a revolt. Freedom was to be theirs and for their children and their children's children for many generations to come. That was their plan as they both lay naked wrapped in Jade's blanket as her toes scratched across his leg. At that moment, they asked the Blue Lady to accept them as mates for life. The seeds for revolt were planted and freedom was the plan for them all. 

All that changed with the fire. Now it was to find the others of their kind. He was not a religious person before but now he had started to believe in the Blue Lady increasingly as the days without Jade passed. He had prayed that Jade as alive somewhere with their child. One day he knew that this child they had conceived out of love, not duty, would be a force to be reckoned with. Like a story from ancient Greek mythology about a nymph who had a child that was greater than both her parents were. 

Shadow hoped that one day his child would play with Hannah's and they would tell stories about the peaceful times that they had growing up. The sacredness of life, and that battle should only be done to protect those that cannot defend themselves. He just watched the scene with Hannah unfold out as he stuck his hand into the water and guided one of her children around in a long circle. 

"Shadow, you look like you need a friend." Hannah said in her best Ordinary. 

"Yeah I do." Shadow said as he guided the little female over to one of her brothers. "I was just thinking about Jade. The night of passion that we spent together prior to the fire and what we were planning on doing for all the mothers to be and their children." 

"You were planning a revolt to save us all." Hannah said as she caressed one of her children. 

"Yes, I was. Uh, Hannah you know that I can give you technology which will give you a voice that sounds like an Ordinary's." Hannah was taken back by Shadow's suggestion. 

"You can. Then why are you bringing it up now?" Hannah was looking at Shadow with a growing suspicion that there was something brewing under the surface. 

"Hannah, Max told me about the incident that you had with the fishing net and the entire strip club fiasco." Shadow said as he nudged one of Hannah's "girls" over to play with one of her sisters; who was now glad about having someone now to play tag with. "Given the way that things are going, I would believe that giving all the aquatics and other Transgenics the capability for normal speech. It cut down on the communications gap between our people." 

"So, why do you want to do this?" Hannah said as one of her daughters yanked on one of her sister's tails that distracted her for a moment, as she had to discipline her children. "Vicky, stop picking on your sister Mischa, you know that she's more developed for land than you are. If you don't stop picking on her, I will have to take you out of the water and stick you in my drift bag." Hannah communicated to her daughter as she sunk under the surface and took her child in her hands and brought the little one to her face. Shadow looked at how Hannah handled the situation and it was better than the shock collars that Manticore had used to control various series of Transgenics through electrical shock. 

"Well, you handled it better than our old masters did to us." Shadow said looking at Hannah as she came back to the surface. "The reason that I want to give you all vocal aids is so maybe that our all the kinds children our people have can play together without the communication gap we had as children." 

"We didn't have a problem communicating when we were children. Did we?" The quizzical sea nymph's question came up. 

"Yes and No Hannah. It would have been great just to talk- talk, not sign-talk. They were watching you when we were kids. But your songs helped keep me and Jade sane when we were growing up." 

"You did the same for me and the others in the tanks." Hannah said with a grin on her face. "There is more to this world than I have ever dreamed and I want my children to grow up in it." 

"Yes they will." Shadow said looking over towards Kyla and Nani. For the Transgenic and Ordinary communities, coexistence was a possibility but understanding would have to be established. That is when Logan showed up with Max and Melfina, but what had caught them off guard was that Matt Sung had come in along with Rain. Between the situations with the girl Kyla and with Rain's people, this was turning into a very strange week for them all.

***

Matt Sung was just staring at the scene before him. There were dozens of Transgenics in the room before him. Gene Roddenbarry, George Lucas, and Stan Winston would have eaten their hearts out at the sight of the creatures that Manticore had created. Between Shark-man, Aquaman and The Alantians, the Wolf man, Neo from the Matrix crew and the Vampire the Masquerade gang, Piermont Limpkin had just pissed off a serious group of people. 

"So are you Matt Sung?" Said a blond cat-like girl who extruded street smarts and attitude like perfume. Not knowing how to respond to the situation, he just kept his reply as simple as possible. 

"Yes I am." The face was familiar but he could not place where he had seen it. 

"So Matt... Why don't you sit down and we will tell what we have planned to take care of some of the problems that have arose thanks to our mutual troublemaker, Piermont Limpkin." Logan said as he pulled up a chair and offered another one to Matt. 

"Logan, are you sure that we can trust them." Matt said trying to figure out what the real motive was for all these mutants wanting to meet with him. Lady Chimera seemed only to be a kid and if she had hacking skills equivalent to Eyes Only, then why was Eyes going along with this. 

"Yes you can trust us. Hell, Limpkin has forced several members of our community from their places of hiding and running from two groups out to kill us is making that much harder for us to find out who torched Command." A dark brown haired, one point seven meter tall Transgenic said as he moved away from the edge of a tank holding a woman with several economy sized tadpoles. 

"What do you mean two groups?" Matt said as he tried to figure out the situation with these individuals. 

"The group that torched Command was not S1W, but a completely different organization. Asha, the blond that is sitting by you, she can account for the locations of every member of S1W and supply them with alibis that check out." Matt just turned to the Asha as she was taken back by what was said. 

"Shadow." She said as she attempted to defend herself from the exclamation of the facts. 

"Asha he needs to know." Shadow said as he started moving nearer to her. 

"I understand as long that this stays within the Informant Net." Asha said looking around towards Max and Logan trying to grasp for answers that were not present for her. 

"The other group, that you were talking about is..." 

"The group that torched command is some sort of eugenic cult with some seriously deep pockets. The other group which we are running from now happens to be a government sponsored retrieval slash termination squad with a psycho maniac running it. Ironically one of these groups has a member that is running a double sided game to fulfill their goals, and we are stuck in the crossfire." 

"So in other words, Limpkin is forcing you guys to go on the defensive before you are ready." Matt said looking at the eclectic group that was before him. "Why haven't Eyes Only helped you out earlier?" 

"The main reason that Eyes Only hasn't helped us out earlier is due to us running like mad from these forces. Eyes has had his preferable hands full in dealing with us being on the run and attempting to locate us." Melfina said as she moved over to her vampire friend who was standing next to a young girl in a wetsuit with gill slits in it. 

"Most of them have been able to create functional identities over the past few months and have been able to keep their Asses out of trouble. Such as Shadow and his friends." Logan said adding information to Matt Sung's situation. 

"So, the group that found Kyla happened to be members of your people that can breath underwater and Limpkin has put them on the run. Since he knows that creatures such as them DO NOT exist in nature, he has started to locate members of your community and has been torturing them to get a rough idea of where the ones that have Kyla are at." Matt said in his Readers Digest synopsis of the situation they were in with Limpkin. 

"Yes. Since the murder victim that was dumped in front of the police station happens to be a member of Rain's community. Contacting Chimera and Eyes Only has become our only chance to get out of this mess enact." A long dark-haired Filipino-Amazon said as she moved over to Shadow. 

"So you want to bring me in so that I can discover what Kyla's Dad was up to and give you a possible means to get out of this without spilling your location." 

"Yes, any resources that we have for tracking him down have hit a dead end, if we can protect Kyla's dad from possible harm and reprisals from Limpkin. Then more the better the chances that when Limpkin is out of the way, we can go back into hiding." Shadow said looking into Matt's eyes not as a soldier, but as a person on the run that would choose his battles to fight. This was a battle, which he had to fight so that he could protect his people from harm. It was Chinatown all over again. 

"Okay, I have a lead for you." Matt said as he got up from the chair and examined the group before him. "I'll only give it under the terms that your kind will not kill without provocation when Limpkin decides to show himself. Understood."

"We understand Sir. Please give us the information." Shadow said as he and the others nodded in agreement. 

"Here is the information that I have." Matt Sung said as the group listened intently to what he had to say next. 

***

The house was quiet with the dew and mist of an early morning. Joshua was sitting with his motto-cross helmet on his head on the back of Max's motorcycle. Max was not happy about the situation as it was but, given the circumstances, getting Limpkin out of the equation for now was of key concern. Matt Sung had given them one of Mr. Matthews old service revolver holsters, minus the gun so that they could track him down from the last address that they had on him. Joshua's canine sense of smell had allowed them to trace Matthews from his grandfather's cabin on the edge of the city, back through the various districts of Seattle until they found themselves at a group of abandoned warehouses. Aspen and Alec were following behind them in Shadow's car and the rest of the gang was sitting at Steinbeck's old Cannery making sure that Kyla was protected. 

The old place smelled like the Basement during summer. Smelly as Hell. Alec and Aspen were following Max and Joshua throughout the structure finding tidbits of past habitation from previous transient residents. Nevertheless, the garbage of the past did not matter now, they were here to find out what would cause a father to go on the run and leave his daughter to such monsters. Joshua was as subtle as an eighteen-wheeler roaring down the aisle of a church during a wedding. 

"Little fella" Joshua said as his tracking skills pushed his over seven foot tall frame towards the ground. "They are this way. Kyla's dad and a woman that smells like her." 

"You mean that you found her mom and dad?" Max said as her black jumpsuit hung close to her frame as she tried to shake off the coldness of the situation. 

"Yes." Joshua said as he moved his sniffing towards a corner sidewall were an argument was heard to be happening. Max and the rest of the group stopped and listened to it to find out who was talking. 

***

"Johna, our child is being held by this maniac and is doing untold things to her." A woman's voice cried out as sobs could be heard. 

"I know Margot, I know. However, Limpkin has bought out half of the department's IA people. Moreover, I don't know whom to trust? If Limpkin can get to me and grab Kyla, then Imagine what he will do if we don't work with him." The male voice said with a deep worry. This was a family in the deepest throes of a living hell that anyone could be placed in. Then there was a sneeze. 

"Did anyone do that?" Max said to the group in a near whisper that only their finely tuned transgenic hearing could pick up then, as a collective shake of no flowed throughout all of them a shock of realization that they were not the only ones listening to the conversation. "If, it was none of us, then we have company coming." Max said as the image of a figure came into view with a gun. 

"Are you sure that we should tell him that we do not have his kid anymore." Said one of the goons, who was attempting to adjust his overly large frame in his bright red jumpsuit that he was wearing. 

"Nahh, as long as Mathews thinks that we have his kid, he do what we want him to do." Another one of the goons said with a sheer bluntness of spite before he knocked on the door to the offices where Johna and his wife were staying. "Hey Mathews, its your good pals out here why don't you be a nice gentleman and open the door for us." One of the men pounded on the door. Then Max and the crew had up and had it. If Limpkin wanted pain, well he was about to have it dished out on his ass in an industrial sized whopper of a spanking. With that, the four Transgenics showed up right behind the two goons just as the door opened. All that Johna saw as he opened the door was a blur of color then seeing two very large associates of Limpkin being thrown through the door headfirst. For several moments afterwards the scene was something out of a Kung Fu flick waiting for the other shoe to drop with the characters ready to strike another blow. Johna just stood there looking at the people before him. 

***

"Who are you people?" Johna said trying to grasp the concept of what was occurring, Limpkin's men would kill his child and they had botched up his plan. 

"Let's say, Kyla wants to see her mommy and daddy again and she asked us to locate you and pick the both of you up." said a young Latino woman in a black jumpsuit. 

"Who sent you?" Said Margot as she looked around at the individuals who had just saved them from Limpkin's men from killing them. Then a dark blond athletic man with a sly face responded back to Margot's question.

"Eyes Only." 

The calmness, which this was said, had unsettled both of them. Johna wanted proof from them whether or not his daughter was alive. 

"Prove it?" Johna ordered to them as he started to move away and pick up one of the dropped thugs guns that lay on the floor. One of the women reached into her jacket, pulled out a cell phone, and dialed a number. The voice on the other side hit him like a ton of bricks followed by the oblivious grand piano.

"Hello." The voice said with youthful vigor. It took a moment to realize whom it was he was speaking to. 

"Kyla???" Johna said as he turned to his wife who was starting to cry. 

"Daddy. Is that you?" 

"Yes darling, it is. Are you alright?" 

"I'm alright, though I am playing a game of checkers with Nani. I think that she hates me because I have won three games already." 

"So, have the people that you are with been treating you well?" Margot's maternal instincts kicked with full force. 

"They have, but I like playing with Hannah's kids in the pool. They look kind of squirmy and icky at first though they love being fed Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches." Then Kyla paused on the phone. "I miss you, I want you to meet all the new friends that I have made." 

"We will darling. We will." With that, the cell phone was handed back to the Amazon woman from whom it came. "We will go with you."

"Yeah, but I think we better put Coy and Bubba here someplace where they will not be coming after you for a while." 

"Put them with Gossamer." Said the tall man in the motorcycle helmet. The look of an evil grin spread across the face of the Latino woman. 

"Yes, Joshua. Lets put them with Gossamer." Then she turned towards the blond man. "Alec, I think you better get a few cans of fruit cocktail for us to use? It is time to go Tarantino on these guys Asses." In a little bit, the two thugs were tossed into the back trunk of the Neon. In the next few minutes the living nightmare these gentlemen had cause would be soon replaced by the idea of a very horny dinosaur that had slimed them inside of a minivan. 

***

The image of the vegetarian dinosaur would be a story to tell Kyla about, though the idea of dumping two jars of fruit cocktail into the guys shorts and walking away and letting the screams begin were priceless. Max was just glad that payback was about to begin and Limpkin was to his just dues. 

The scene was different for the two thugs as they witnessed a very horny, dinosaur with a sun flowered toothed mouth; start shredding their shorts in an attempt to bite their little soldiers off. Fat Cartman of South Park would be laughing his head off. Forget the wiener eating horse, forget the human chili, and forget the Cathy Lee Giffordzilla stomping people to death. This was revenge at its purest. However, the thought that after being cocooned in dino-slime, the idea of having this thing lay eggs in them and a day or two later little dinos would be bursting out of their chest made them scream all that more louder for their lives. 

"I want you to call Gossamer into his little dog house before you call in the cops." Max said, as Johna just looked at the situation the open before him. 

"Why don't you want me to call the Cops now." Said Murray, who ran the junkyard where Gossamer lived.

"We need these guys to squirm for a while so that we can nail their boss." Said Max, as she handed him the number for Logan's cell phone so it could be dialed. 

"What is their boss doing that is so bad that deserves them being licked to death by old Gossie over there?" Murray said pointing over to the old abandoned bus where the men were chained up. 

"Attempted murder, Murder, reckless endangerment of life, and just pissing me off for starters." 

"Oh, if it was cruelty towards animals, I would have put a watermelon on them for good measure." The scruffy junkyard owner mentioned, as he walked back into his trailer to pour the liquid silicone he was making his living off into old milk jugs to sell at ten dollars a pound. Then later he would call the cops. Cha-ching

***

"You need therapy." Said Asha Barlow watching the five o'clock news on the projection television at the old cannery. 

"I don't know what you were thinking but I ensure you that you definitely got the point across." Said Johna, as he looked the strange scene that opened up before him. His little girl was alive and was acting as a normal kid would. Though the thought of her playing with a sea nymph did make him wonder about the therapy bills he would receiving from the school counselors later on. 

"Right now, what we need to do is make sure that you and your family are protected until you make your case to the District Attorney." Said Logan as he opened up his Laptop computer and brought up some of the files that Melfina had been able to retrieve from the police Mainframe.

"How did you get these?" Johna said as he looked at the documents before him. 

"I kind of hacked into the police computer system and copied both the back up and trashcan files along with the revision log of the modifications." Melfina said as she was pulling out her tablet computer to check out the police leads. The technology that made up the primitive command center, which was effective for what, they needed to do for the next few hours. Send a message to Pierpont Lempkin, that his corruption of the police would end. 

Margot just watched as she looked at Rain and Hannah just "talk" on one another as Logan, Mel and her husband started to reconstruct his computer files on the people he was investigating. The next few hours would lead to some very interesting stuff for them all as plans were set in motion to stop Pierpont Lempkin from hurting both the human and transgenic communities alike.

***

TBC

Chapter 10: Meetings, Big Trouble, Search for Dad

Next: 

Chapter 11: Aftereffect, Asha Barlow Skinny-dipping and Max at the beach

Buzz me on any questions, comments, and story ideas? Please review. I would like to hear about what you think of the story. Your likes your dislikes, inconsistencies with the plot or misspellings of characters names or places. I just want to know if people are reading the story. I need feedback.


	9. Ch 11 Eyes Only's Transgenic Operatives ...

Hidden Danger Crouching Cat.

By Shannon Hearn

The characters of Dark Angel are owned by Twentieth Century Fox Television and Cameron Eglee productions. All other characters are of my creation.

***

Thanks to Brin for giving me the Kick when I needed it. As Muses go, You're a chainsaw welding ass kicker for getting people off their asses and writing.

***

Parental advisory: This chapter is rated "R" due to it containing mild sexual content and nudity. 

***

Chapter 11: Aftereffects, Asha Barlow Skinny-dipping and Max at the beach

The static on the screen filled the air, as the network programming slowly gave way to the familiar yet tame flash of the Freedom Streaming Video Bulletin:

"This Cable hack will last at least sixty seconds, it cannot be traced, it cannot be stopped and it is the only free voice left in this city. For months, the Crime lord Pierpont Limpkin has used his power and influence to corrupt several officers of the Internal Affairs Department of the Seattle Police department. This fear and intimidation of the officers on the force has ended. The officer whose family you have been threatening will start giving the unedited reports your associates forced him to change and edit to the State District attorney. Your time has ended Limpkin. This has been a Streaming Freedom Bulletin, Peace, Out." 

With a click of static, the broadcast ended and Johna and his family took a sigh of relief as they turned away from the Television and looked around to the individuals that had helped them. Johna saw not monster, or creatures but people whose hearts were big as his own. Johna knew that there would be repercussions, but his family was safe and that Limpkin would have his ass nailed to the wall for his criminal doings. If Limpkin walked on the White Slavery charges, he would be nailed by the police corruption charges. The police had a long way to go to rebuild their trust with the people of the community. Now from the look of things, Eyes Only would have some of his people keep an eye on them for the foreseeable future until Limpkin was in prison. 

From the way that things were going, he had at least thirty volunteers to aid him in his battles. Now for the therapy bills.

***

Asha Barlow was looking at the ocean, the waves were moving back-and-forth as she thought about what she had been through over the past few days. Max had moved from being an enigma to someone she understood more, this was not a mission of Max it was her people, it was her life. Asha just wanted to take a bath, or swim, whichever one came first so that she could clear her head. Asha just started walking towards the nighttime water and shed through the layers of her clothing until she walked naked into the water. The shock of cold hit her mid ankle and she shivered like crazy letting out a yelp in the process. The rest of her journey into the water was more manageable after that as she swam out into the nighttime water. 

The feeling of the cold water against her skin made her forget about her worries as she remembered her pre-Pulse childhood with her family. 

Asha had always wondered about how she wound up with the African word for "hope" being her name. The night when her "salt of the earth" mother had said that, she was the most cherished life she had brought into the world. Asha had felt that there was something her mom was holding back from her that she needed to know for her own good and probably her life. Something that her late brother never got the chance to say the answer to her question of why her mom saw her as she did and why there was forty grand put in a college trust for her. Years later her brother was beat to death by a group of corrupt Cops as he was investigating information as the original Supreme Commandant of Security First World. 

Asha had felt that she needed to escape from the problems that had hit her over the head from the past few days. It was not until she stopped just off the shore and looked back at the city she saw the hugeness of the world around her. The raw emotion and feeling of the big picture made her feel safe as she treaded in the ocean water. 

The feeling that there was something near her that was sneaking around attempting to find out what she was. Then she felt something grip her leg. She screamed as she tried to kick whatever it was off her leg. Then suddenly in the full terror she was in she urinated like crazy in the water. Whatever it was had let go, then there was a sudden splash out of the water as something broke the surface. It was one of the Aquatics. Nani. From the look that she had on her face, she was spitting something out like she had gotten a mouthful of something really sour. It took Asha a moment to realize that it was Nani who was tugging on her leg that moment earlier. In all of Asha's fear, she had just urinated in the Nani's face when she was underwater. 

"Sorry..." was all Asha could say as the child looked at her. 

"Why, how did you do that, make the water taste like jellyfish." Nani said with her best Ordinary. 

"I just do it when I am scared, and cold as Hell." Asha said to the water-breathing child as she attempted to process what had just happened.

"Asha," Nani said, "I'm budding like you." 

"What do you mean?" Asha said wondering what the child was talking about. 

"I need to show you on shore." The young child twitched trying to rearrange the top of her speed suit. With that Nani started to swim off with her head above the surface of the water. Asha started to follow; starting to realize that was something personal that the two of them needed to talk about. Puberty. The hormonal nightmare that turns all little children into young adults within a matter of years. It was time for the "training-bra" talk. 

***

Quinn was sitting on his surfboard, looking around at the night sky. It was times like this that he could make sense of the world. After the past few days, the experience with Aspen had still to sink in. The creature from the Black Lagoon had just communicated with her as if it was an everyday event. Were all the other things that she said knowing about real? 

Then what was she? 

For several moments, Quinn waited for a wave to come in for him to ride it. The currents were behaving like a heartbeat, pulsing at a rhythm of its own. Then at the right beat of the heart, he angled his board and caught the wave. He laid as low as he could to achieve the maximum amount of control over the surface of his surfboard. His ability of move around on the currents brought him comfort as the events started to make sense, then at that moment, he slipped on his board just as the curl of the wave came down upon him. Quinn quickly found himself hit over his head by several thousand gallons of Ocean water. The roar of the waves was deafening as his ears flooded with water and the pressure changed. 

In his attempt to swim to the surface, he hit a handful of sand. The darkness was quickly taking him as his brain, starved of oxygen, started to attempt to cannibalize nutrients from his body to keep his system going. Then at that moment, two hands reached down, grabbed him, and pulled him up with incredible strength. The roar of the water moved over him like an unearthly creature as the light from the surface looked as if it wanted to embrace him. 

Breaking the surface of the water, Quinn gasped for air as if it was the most precious thing for him to possess. The moments passed like an eternity for him as Quinn started to gain his senses and looked around him as the waves patted at his wetsuit. Then he saw the head of a woman nearby. She was treading water as she looked at him as she was holding on to his surfboard. His Surfboard, Delilah. 

"Um, Hi there." Quinn said looking at the woman whose long brown hair clung to the back of her wetsuit like a drowned entity. Then she just waved at him. "Yeah, right! Um, was that you who pulled my ass out of that mess I was in by me drowning." Quinn attempted to say to the woman as most of his mind started to shut down as he started to realize that this was the individual who had saved him.

"You're not a good swimmer." The woman said to him in a voice that almost sounded like a dolphin's but very articulated to him as she attempted to sound like a human. 

"Let me guess, you know a girl by the name of Aspen." Was all he said, and the response out of the woman was a simple nod up and down to confirm what he thought. 

"Yes. She is my friend." She said as she started to look at him and worry. "Do, you know Max, Logan, and Asha?" She said in somewhat troublesome articulation.

"No, but I am seriously creped now." Quinn said as he moved toward his board to start to shield him from any attempted attacks from this woman if she turned out to be one of the "creatures" that Aspen knew. "Listen, are you one of the beings that Aspen knows. You know a Mermaid, or a Dark Angel?" 

"I'm what was called once a Mermaid. But I am insulted by the concept of being called such a thing." The sour look on the Woman's face was plain enough for him to know that he had just royally irked her off. He suddenly remembered that Aspen had mentioned knowing Nymphs; calling this woman a Mermaid was probably the worse thing he could have said to her face. 

"I'm so royally sorry about insulting you 'bout the entire Mermaid thing." Quinn said attempting to save face as well not be staked down by this woman or her "friends." "Listen, I just want to get to shore and lets try to keep this embarrassing situation to our selves." Quinn said as he moved onto the board. 

"Um', Listen, I'm searching for a friend of mine and I think that she might be in the area." The woman said as she started to move towards him as he started to mount the surfboard. "I was heading towards the shore to see if she was there and was wondering could talk for a while. I don't get a chance to talk to 'Landers' much given the bad experience that I've had in the past." Quinn just looked at her trying to figure out what the Nymph was wanting from him. 

"Listen I know that Aspen is your friend, so lets from the get-go put our names out for each one of us to know." Quinn put as he attempted to make some more sense of the situation. 

"I'm Hannah, and you're..." Hannah put as she swam at incredible speed by him. Quinn knew that she was at least part dolphin. 

"Quinn. Well at least your not that Shark guy that sprung up during my surfing with Aspen." He said as he laid down on the board and road the tail end of the wave in next to Hannah. 

"Yeah, Sharky can be a little intimating when you first see him, but he is the nicest person that I know. Plus he is great with my kids." 

"You're a mom..." 

"Yes, I have 8 children. The oldest of which has just developed her arms and legs and has started to pester her younger siblings." 

"Enjoy them when they are young." Quinn said looking by the nymph. "They grow up fast and you will wish for the days when they were young." 

"I will, but given the events over the past few days my people and Aspen's have been dealing with a mess of serious proportion." Hannah said as the ground started to come up underneath her and Quinn. 

"Wait. Aspen is from a different 'people' than you? Are they different from me?" Quinn stated as he slid off the surfboard and flipped it underneath his arm. He turned to see Hannah's athletic frame come out of the water. It was then he saw the two holes on her lower ribcage of her swimsuit. She had gills, No tail, but Gills. 

"Well tell me about Aspen, I heard that she was on the run from some of her family." 

"Aspen is running from the people that are hunting down the various kinds of our people." 

"You mean that the people that are after her are not her family but are hunting her family down. Each and every last member she knows." 

"Yes."

"Oh, my God." Quinn came to the realization that Aspen was trying to protect her from the world she knew. 

"Quinn..." Hannah said, "I'm Okay with being on the run, but I know there will be a day that Me and my children will be able to play freely with other Landers in peace." 

"So Hannah, Aspen is part of the group of people that is helping you in achieving this dream?" 

"Yes, she and many others are working together for this dream." She said as they walked up the beach. Quinn was taken back by her talking about what she was involved with. Then they ran across two people sitting on the beach talking to each other. It took a moment for Hannah to realize it was Nani and Asha talking to each other. 

"Hey, there are my friends up ahead, Quinn." Hannah started to run to where the two girls were sitting. "Nani, Asha what are you two girls up to?"

"Nothing much Hannah..." the sopping wet black haired woman said with a large brown blanket wrapped around her to shuck off the cold of the northern Seattle night. "Just sharing some girl talk Hannah. We just talked about life, experiences, body changes, and just growing up." 

"Asha has been telling me about her childhood." The little nymph said looking up with her shortcut black hair and Eurasian eyes that give her the appearance of a cat. Quinn looked at Asha and saw that this woman looked also like a cat as well. In the back of his mind, he was thinking maybe this girl was from the same people as Aspen was. 

"Yeah, I told her about all the crazy stuff that I did, stealing my brother's car, taking my first vodka on rocks with a fake ID, and the infamous Tequila Dance at my sweet sixteen birthday party." Asha said rolling her bare feet into the sand. 

"Wow," Quinn said as he looked at the three girls talking. Planting his surfboard into the sand, he sat down and just watched these three girls just talk. It was surreal yet normal at the same time given that he had just walked into the Twilight Zone. Just over the dunes behind them, several pairs of feline eyes were watching him as they came down to them. Little did he know that in twenty-four hours Eyes Only would be yelling at him at the top of his lungs for bumping into the events to follow. He should have taken the blue pill this morning. 

***

Max was sitting on the deck of Steinbeck's cannery looking out at the ocean waves smash against the concrete pillars. The serenity of the ocean was as close as she was going to get to being on top of the Space needle tonight. However, the feeling that for the moment she had won a battle she would win. There were times that her did not suck and this was one of them. Behind her, the cybernetic whirr of Logan's Exo moving as he came towards her. 

"You know Max we won a battle today." He said as the two day-old scruffiness of his beard twitched as he spoke. 

"Yes we did." Max said looking out to the sea. Time was not on her side. She wanted to desperately kiss Logan right there, move to the beach, shed their clothes, and have the butterflies in her stomach jump as they made love for the first time. She wanted to be seen as a human, not as some creature cooked up in a lab. She wanted to sit down with Logan and talk about having a family, children just like Logan's niece Brittany, and have a happy life together. Fate as would have it had other things in mind. She just wanted to be normal like everyone else. However, NO, she had to be stuck in the body of a Genetically Engineered super soldier made for one purpose only. To destroy her enemies. 

To hell with the Virus that kept her from her love, She just wanted to touch Logan with all of her heart to feel alive with love. But thanks to Manticore, she had been cursed to never touch her love again, until she found a way to break the spell cast upon her by her former masters. She felt like Rutger Hauer in the movie LadyHawk. Forever separated but always close to each other until the Eclipse set them free. When would her eclipse occur for her to get her life back? 

"Max. I know that things are not easy for you but know that we will like this thing between us. But remember that I still love you with all my heart." Logan said looking deeply into her brown eyes and came within inches of touching her brown olive skinned face. He just stopped short of touching her but the emotion he desperately wanted to express towards her were put a stop to by the virus in her body. 

"Logan I wish there was a way that I could show how much I love you." Max said as she moved away and decided to head out for a walk on the beach. "I just want to be a normal girl, Logan." In that instant, she blurred away towards the other end of the cannery and walked out the door. 

Logan just stood there for several moments wondering how much Max could take of this Hell Manticore had put her in. Then he turned around to see Shadow talking with Alac and Joshua. The motley crew was up to something but little did he know it would be the means of allowing both him and Max to hold each other as if they never had before. In love's caring embrace.

***

"Okay guys tell me a bit about the Virus that Max has and its effects on Logan" Shadow said as he looked at his fellow X-series and the large canine Nomalie before him. 

"I put Little Fella's virus papers into my painting by accident." Joshua said looking sheepishly at the Transgenic Field Medic. 

"Max left them at Josh's and in one of his bursts of artistic fervor, they sort of wound up in one of His paintings." Alac said trying to avoid the fact that he was the one that had given Joshua the papers in the first place. 

"Great, just great." Shadow just said looking around the scene between his old Army pal and the artist Dog Boy. 

"Listen, Joshua went through a lot just to get Joshua number two back." Joshua said to Shadow. 

"Okay Josh, so we have the notes and we have the painting. So all we need to do is get the paint off the paper." Shadow said looking at Joshua. Then with sadness in his eyes, Joshua looked down at Shadow and wanted to worry some more. "If there was some way to get Little Fella's papers out of my painting without damaging them." He said attempting to wrestle with the question at his disposal. 

"If there is a way to look under it, why don't we X-ray the painting?" Jim said coming into the conversation with Logan. 

"When my Uncle Jonas got several Rembrandt paintings at an auction, he had them authenticated by an art expert who used an X-ray machine to look underneath to view the pencil sketches underneath."

"Well contact the guy who has one of these things and lets use it." Shadow said looking at Logan wanting more information from him. 

"Well sorry, but the only place that my Uncle Jonas trusted with his art was a curator at the Iconographic gallery." Logan said as Joshua and Alac started to look at each other as if Logan just said eureka and they all shed their clothes and streaked across the city. 

"Logan, we'll contact a friend we know at the Gallery." Alac said looking at Logan. 

"Call Rita." Joshua said as his canine face grinned in hope and glee. He was going to visit his muse once again.

***

Max just ran across the beach, her bear feet pounding across the sand at incredible speed. All her anger and all of her fear were transmuted to the soil. She felt the deaths of all those around her, Tinga, Crow, Eva, Ben, Linda. For the Blue Lady, Linda. She was so afraid, was Linda still alive after all these years. How many times was her sister raped by her foster dad? 

Had the authorities moved her to another foster family? Had Lucy fled to the streets? Was she happy? Was she sad? All those questions flowed through her mind as she attempted to remember the feeling of Logan's deep caress against her face, the near sensual way that her body heaved by the way his hand touched her bear flesh. She could feel the pert of her breasts as the image of making love to him. True love, not heat based mating urges, but True romantic, caring, "I will spend the rest of my life with you till the day I die" Love. It went against Max's entire upbringing being girly and such. 

Max's most recent dreams were filled with imagery of her and Logan being together in some strange place, It was sparsely furnished but had that flair of it being both her and Logan's ranging from her taste in books and Logan's taste in Eyes Only gear. However, there was something on the walls, it was a child's drawings of her and Logan with a small child next to them sitting on the back of her Motorcycle. 

She spun around in the main living area to see a little girl with all of Logan's features but her flowing black hair and dark olive skin sitting on a couch curled up with a book. The looked up from the text she was reading and blurred over towards Max. 

"Mommy, your home." The girl said touching and holding her mother around her waist. Max just looked into the child's eyes, so much like her's but there was a difference, she knew who her mother was. There was something that caught her attention as her daughter pulled away from her the child raised her right hand up to show the inside of her wrist. There were markings, in some language she did not know. "Mommy, I made the same tattoo on my wrist like the one that you have on yours." It took a moment but Max looked down at her wrist to see the same symbols on her right wrist. Then she turned around to see a very grown up Brittany and some Blond Girl who was a little bit older standing right behind her. The Blond Girl walked over to Max and tapped her on the shoulder and said, "Max, you have an appointment with the committee tonight about Transgenic integration." 

Max said "Okay, Fiona. Just let me have some personal time with my child." The dream had felt like it was real and it had happened. However, given the way that things looked around her, it was the future. Max had kept waking up at that time wondering if the Dream was some message of her unconscious or some memory from the future. She did not know what it meant but all she wanted right now was to be a normal person. That was until she collapsed over one of the dunes she was running over that she wound up at the feet of a person she never wanted to see. Hell the naked body she had nightmares about seeing. Asha. 

"Max..." Asha said as she started to pull the towel she had wrapped around her back up as she struggled to get her underwear on. The raw emotion on Max's face was that of anger, sadness, and just plain exhaustion. 

"Jondy..." with those words Max fainted. 

***

For several moments everyone gathered around Max, Asha was wondering what was up. Why did Max call her Jondy? Hannah reached down to caress the soft black hair as the steady and paced rhythm of Max's breathing showed the inner turmoil of the trouble that was brewing within her mind. Life had sucked for Max, but it would go through several stages of bad until it got better. However, for tonight, rest was what she needed. There was some good news on the horizon for her. It just needed to cook for a little while longer to be ready to serve. As Hannah, Asha, Nani and Quinn took her back to the cannery so that she could get some sleep. 

***

TBC 

***

Next time: Chapter 12: The Muse, Meeting Jade, and the Death of Wendy and Annie

Buzz me on any questions, comments, and story ideas? I need comments about what you all think of my story. 


	10. Ch 12 The Events of the Seige, Inside an...

Hidden Danger Crouching Cat.

By Shannon Hearn

The characters of Dark Angel are owned by Twentieth Century Fox Television and Cameron Eglee productions. All other characters are of my creation.

***

Parental advisory: This chapter is rated "R" due to it containing mild sexual content and nudity. 

***

Chapter 12: The Muse, Meeting Jade, and the Death of Annie

For the days following Logan's Eyes Only broadcast, Asha had felt as if there was a part of Max's past linked to her own. Something important for her was in play and Asha felt that it was connected to some event they had both shared to their present. Who was Jondy? After talking to Melfina for a while, Asha had learned that Jondy was Max's "sister" back at Manticore. From what Melfina had said the two of them were inseparable, practically tied at the hip by how close they dealt with each other. They had kept the other sane in their youth, so whatever Max had seen in her from that emotional run on the beach had made her look like Max's sister. 

Sketchy's words still hung in her mind. "If I was going to make a Super soldier, I would make them all like you." What if out there, there was a Transgenic running around with her face. That was a thought that scared the crap out of her. Could there be a connection between Max and her that was more than friendship, what if it was "family." 

***

Rita was working at her desk at the Iconographic Gallery looking over the artwork for the upcoming art exhibition show of Seattle's newest up and coming artists. Joshua was definitely going to be in it. However, her desire to get his artwork Joshua Number two on display again. She never expected to see Joshua walk into the Gallery in Broad daylight. 

***

Joshua wearing his motto-cross helmet had to basically borrow Alac's sector pass again. Considering that Melfina, Logan, Alac, Asha and Shadow were with him. At least given the situation, they could tell Rita what exactly they wanted done with his painting. It was his mess that he made; he was going to make it right. The Virus Bitch was going down. So walking in the front door was very scary, all he wanted was to get this done as painlessly as possible. 

Logan had parked Betsy in the parking lot outside and Joshua was walking in to the Gallery with Melfina so that it would look like a simple delivery. There were so many Ordinary people. This was not a good thing. Therefore, with Alac's bike in one hand and his painting being balanced with Mel in the other, this cakewalk was becoming a nightmare. Remember the lines and you are in. 

"Jam Pony Delivery." Joshua said as he attempted not to hyperventilate in the process. 

"Joshua, long time no see." Rita said looking at Josh's disguise. 

"No see. Right, Rita." Joshua said catching on to the colloquialism that was used. 

"Listen, a friend of ours has some papers that we need to get out of Josh's artwork, but given the paintings value." Melfina said looking at the polemicist of the art. "Can we have it X-rayed." 

Rita was curious about why would Joshua go through this to get his art X-rayed, but whatever was in his painting that was so important for him to get back. It must have been highly important to him for leaving suddenly as he did, but she would soon the reasons why he had left. 

"Joshua, I can't X-ray the painting without someone who owns or for legal reasons." Rita said looking at Joshua trying to explain the situation to him. 

"Joshua has a friend who is interested in Joshua's art and is willing to pay." Josh said behind his disguise. 

"Who is your patron other than me?" Rita questioned. Then Joshua dropped the other shoe. 

"Logan." Joshua said, and then he said it again, this time much more louder so that everyone in the museum could hear him. Before Rita could say the words to be quite, she saw who Joshua's patron was. Logan Cale. 

"Hey Josh." Logan said walking over in his exo. The preferable scrapping the jaw off of the floor left Rita speechless for several minutes. The Blond woman who was with him had air of being sexy and dangerous at the same time. The feeling that was building in Rita's stomach was that Logan Cale was getting some serious Transgenic action in places she would rather keep private. 

***

An hour later, Logan and the Transgenics were sitting in the art conservatory as various technicians worked on restoring the different types f art ranging from sculpture in everything from Wood, Clay, plastic and believe it or not urinal cakes. Logan was looking around as he glimpsed at the artwork that he once owned, Since his financial problems after the Government had seized many of his family assets in retaliation in the building of the "Killer hover drone" he had spent the last year rebuilding his recourses so that he could have a life. Eyes Only had become his life, but it was times like these that allowed him to know what he was fighting for. Sometimes it is the culture and how we perceive that culture that makes us who we are. Joshua had set his painting on the easel so that the scanner would scan through the layers of the various acrylics he had used to get to the under layers of his paint. The underneath the structure the lead and heavy carbon of the pencil written notes started to show through. There underneath the paint and clearly on the screen was the cure to Max's Virus. 

"Logan, I think we are going to need a lot of paper." Shadow said as he looked at the images on the computer screen before him. 

"So how long do you think that this is going to take." Logan said to Shadow as he looked over the information. 

"About a week." Shadow said looking at how Joshua had moved the polemicist of the research notes around in his art. "Given once we get all the stuff scanned and printed out, we have to reconstruct it so that we can read the information. The Good news is that we'll be able to get a bulk of the papers out just by hitting the print key. However, at least three pages will take most of the time needed. Given that Josh crumpled them up his artistic furor. Though I count our blessings that the damages is not as bad as I had expected given the amount of paint we have to work through." 

"So all we have to do with those three pages that Josh crumpled is what, fit the preferable pieces together." Asha said looking at the situation before her. "Well Let's tell Max, Okay at least it will cheer her up and get her moody ass off of me this time." 

"Asha, Max has had a hard enough life, so if you spend some quality time with her, you probably would be able to figure out who she is and she would be able to figure out who you are." Shadow said to Asha as she looked between Logan, Alac and Shadow.

"The things I have to go through to make sense of your Girlfriend Logan. The things I go through." With that, Asha pondered what she was going to do next. For Shadow, he was going to be spending the next few days after work putting the pieces of Max's virus paper jigsaw puzzle together.

***

Aspen was sitting at one of the tables at Jam Pony with Max eating their lunch. Aspen with her Cheese Mussel Chowder and Max eating her tuna on Sourdough sandwich. Aspen was attempting to use her powers to tap into Max's past. Over the past few days since the entire Limpkin incident Max had started to become increasingly more moody. Between her worrying about her people and the stress of not being near Logan had made her wonder if she should just leave and hand things over to Shadow to deal with. However, it was Joshua who had kept her sane and attached to those around her in these turbulent times. 

"Max." Aspen said looking deeply into Max's spiritual energy and attempting to harness some connection to her past. "Max..." Aspen nearly screamed at the top of her lungs. Max just quickly looked at her as if she had been a deer in front of a pair of headlights. 

"Uh, Sorry Aspen." Max said attempting to clear the cobwebs from her mind. "I'm just a little out of it." 

"You feel like you need someone to talk to." Aspen said seeing an image of a Dark Haired Asha appear behind her. The girl was crying, attempting to figure out what had happened to her sister. 

"Yeah," Max said looking at Aspen wondering if the dreams that she had been having were some way that her unconscious was attempting to warn her about something of prepare her for some great trial set before her to accomplish. 

"Max when Quinn and Hannah drug you into the cannery a few nights ago, you look like you saw a ghost." Aspen said looking Max right in the face. 

"Yeah, Asha looked like I was attempting to cry in front of her." Max said trying to figure out where the PsyOp was work out of her. 

"Max, Tell me about Jondy, all I know about her is from what you muttered in your sleep." Aspen said looking at Max and starting to see that it was not an image of Asha that she was seeing behind her, but it was a grown up Jondy. 

"Well all I know about her is what my brother Zack told me that she was Okay, but when she was younger we use to sit up and watch the stars all night and wonder what was beyond the walls." Max said looking back in time to seeing Jondy with her military crew cut highlighting her pudgy ears. The grin that she would always remember bringing hope to the darkest times at Manticore, the two of them were sisters in more ways than one. They were the other's sanity and spirit in that dark place. 

"Jondy's life must either be better than mine or at least close to it." Max was about to start crying like crazy. At that moment, Normal walked over to see Aspen leaning over to hug Max rocking her back and forth. Which really creped him out, how close was Max to having one of her Violent Work place fantasies Cindy had told him about. 

"It's okay Max, It's okay. I'll see if I can use my powers to see if I can contact her. But I have a sense that she is going through the same pain you are going through." Aspen could start to see that Jondy was looking at her not Max any more and was projecting the feeling she wanted to talk with her sister too. 

"Aspen, if you are lying..." Max said as she slowly started to gain control of herself again. 

"...Then I will use all my powers to help you out." With that Aspen knew that her powers would be put to the test as tracking down one of the original Oh, niners to aid her friend keep her sanity. Lowa definitely had her work cut out for her as she spirit surfed the world of the Other Realm. But the events would turn dark when a Nomilie was seen attacking several police officers making the Transgenic community known to the entire world and amped the need for Aspen to find Jondy became more important for Max's sanity. 

***

Jade or X5-523 as she was know back at Manticore sat in the bathtub feeling her ever increasing rounded belly and the occasional kick from within, the Baby girl she was carrying was all she had left of her love Shadow. Was he dead, was he alive. She had dreams about her love. The last night that they had spent together, they had made love repeatedly. She could still feel his gentle kisses up her back towards one of her ears. She giggled with life, a life that was denied her. They were two people in love and despite the bleak settings they lived, they knew that this moment was all theirs. Then she was brought back to reality, as there was a knock on the door to the bathroom. The X6 Allanbe and X8 Fiona entered the bathroom to help her out of the bathtub. Between the two of them, they had cheered up the unit on many occasions. Allanbe loved hanging with either Domo, a hardcore X5 Alpha and Darrien the X-Series custom stealth unit who loved to do the "I'm invisible with the floating pizza" in the kitchen and the little Cherub Fiona, whose powers were almost along the lines of being that of a PsyOps with her intuitive nature for others around her. Given all the pain that Jade had gone through, she loved to be gal pals with Grace, or Amazing Grace as she had become to be known. The Female Brainic had used her powers to keep them off the radar and safe. Though after seeing an Eyes Only Info Burst, Grace had gone into the bathroom and puked her guts out after she had learned that one of her fellow Brainics had been killed defending peoples freedom and lives. 

Allanbe had felt that even a Brainic could be killed, but what was the reason that Brain had died. All Grace would say X5-452 was the reason that he died. Jade was desperate to find answers to the questions she so wanted. Someone was hunting them, and even at Grace's most efficient predictions was that there was something leading them to meet at an event that would be the answer of their prayers. Nevertheless, Grace had said to Allanbe that she should take Jade out for a meal at some pizza place downtown. Little did Allanbe know that Jade would soon meet with her love once again but tackling a very large Dog Nomilie out for Pizza definitely was not in Grace's prediction. 

***

Joshua was happy, Happy, Happy, Happy. The Virus Bitch was going down. Though being eaten alive by fleas did put a damper on things. Max had helped him set up Bug Bombs to kill the little bastards eating him alive. In the scheme of things, why did a dead cat have so many of these flesh eating creatures on its little body? Well after getting rid of the dead creature in curbside garbage can. Joshua started itching like crazy; he soon realized that there were thousands of little insects biting on his skin. When Max had come by and realized what was happening she had asked him to stay outside until she got back. The five cans of something called Bug Bomb, after they had set them off Max handed him a bottle called flea powder and told him to put it on and stay outside for a while until he stopped itching. 

Max had to take care of some thing but mostly she wanted to get a bath so that she could get rid of the itching against her skin. But for Joshua sitting on the porch outside Father's house, he thought about Max and the past events over the last few days. He knew that Melfina would be by with pizza and he would be talking with her. Mel had matured much from that little scared X-series girl he found on the floor back at Manticore. But as he drifted off to sleep on the chair on the porch he looked back to remembering his father, all the times that he played with him, the little Debbie cakes and looking at the near shaven head of Little Fella. She was so small, yet she had a vulnerability about her that made her cling to father so closely as she did. When she was first introduced to him, she hid behind father's leg though he did reach over to touch her on her ear. Though she did have cat in her cocktail she always did perch herself on the counter and look down at him. After she ran into him in the basement after so many years, he realized that she was still afraid of him but he knew that backing off would be the wisest thing for him to do. Afterwards she became accustom to him that she knew unconsciously that she knew him. Even though she was young, she was very scared of him but when he met her when she was older, he got the feeling that the fear was still there but if he were nice to her, she would at least be nice to him in exchange. Through the months that he had known her, Max had become family. She was a link to his past and towards his future in these troublesome times. 

He was awakened by the sniffing of a golden retriever. 

"Billy, why did you drag me up here." A woman's voice said attempting to pull the dock back. Joshua shot awake at the sound of her voice. As he attempted to shun away from and hide, she started to come forward. 

"Is someone there?" She said, "Are you hurt? She could tell there was someone there from his breathing. He slowly rose up with the hood of his sweatshirt covering his head. 

"Uh...no, I--I'm not hurt." Joshua said looking at the girl who stood before him as hid his forehead from view. However, this girl started to awaken something in him that he had never felt before. 

"Billie's never done this before. She just pulled me off the sidewalk and up these steps." She said tugging on the harness on the Golden Retriever. Billie who could see who he was really, all his Canine DNA had attracted this girl's dog to his front door. 

"Hi, Billie." Joshua said petting the woman's dog as she started to nuzzle against him and liking him ferociously.

"Guess she just likes you." The woman said grinning as Billie's licking started to get louder. Then Joshua noticed something about the woman who Billie belonged to she was not looking at him but she was sensing things about Billie's behavior through the sounds she was making and the strange harness that she had in her hands. She was blind. Josh waved one of his hands in front of her face to make sure that she was truly blind. 

"She helps you." Joshua said with growing curiosity about this attractive individual who stood before him. 

"She leads me around. Makes sure I'm safe." She said rolling her fingers with her free hand, like a young schoolgirl in love. 

" Makes sure you don't bump into things. " Joshua said getting more comfortable with her as the tension slowly broke down between them.

"I guess so." the woman said chuckling at Joshua's simplicity. Billie started to love being stroked by Joshua's large hand. 

"Good Billie. Good Billie." He said feeling that for the first time in his life he was a normal person. Then the woman offered her hand towards Joshua as she worked up the nerve to say her name. 

"I'm Annie. Annie Fisher. I live up the street." The ice was broken with the subtlety of an anvil being dropped from a seven-forty-seven overhead into Josh's front yard. Josh took Annie's hand in his and shook it repeatedly. 

"I'm Joshua. I'm, uh, from..." Josh said as he started to point to the house but realized that if he gave her too much information she could be in danger. What if White found her or him, then what then? Josh then though for a second for a plausible answer to give her then it hit him, be the foreign man. All the girls like a man with an accent it was what all the romantic men in all of his father's novels were, so that would be the role he would play, until he knew that he could trust her with the truth. "...not...here. Not here. I mean, I'm visiting." That would at least buy some time until he could open up to her with the truth. 

"Oh, from where?" Annie said getting more and more interested in this Joshua who fate had placed before her. 

" Manti--" Joshua caught himself before he could say any more, then he decided to take a spin of where he was from, well at least some place that sounded like Manticore, "...uh...coro." He said attempted with the gruphiness of his voice coming through the last syllables of what he had said. He was crossing his fingers hoping that she had bought it. 

"Mantia Coro." Annie said glimpsing at the person who was before her. 

"In France." Joshua said attempting to sound foreign in the process, all the girls he had read about in his books all liked men from France. 

"Your English is very good." His dark Beauty said to him as the butterflies in his stomach started to cloud together en mass. 

Joshua said using the best French he had learned from all the novels he had read, "'Merci beaucoup.'" 

Annie laughed as she started to see that there was a man who would love her for who she was, not the "Blind Girl" who was to be pitied, but as a true individual, "Well, we should probably be going. Come on, Billie. Come on." Annie said as she tugged at Billie's harness to pull her in the direction she wanted to go. As Joshua watched Annie walk away, he felt that he had a new Muse in his life. This one he could be close to. As Annie reached the sidewalk, she stopped and called back to him as Billie started to point her in the direction back to their house. 

"It's nice to meet you, Joshua." She said moving away with her heart floating above the stars themselves. 

Joshua looked at Annie as his heart started to beat faster and faster pulling at his heart like wild stallions for him to ride out to meet her on his gallant steed so that he could take her back to his mighty noble castle. "Nice to meet you, Annie." Little did the both of them know that their lives would lead to their worlds being changed forever. As Annie walked away from Joshua's house, Max pulled up on her Ninja, with a desperate need in her eyes. 

"Joshua! I need your help!" She said as the raw fear and terror filled her eyes. Something had happened to Logan. In the next few hours Joshua would be taken to the Hospital where Doctor Shookcar worked with him being pulled on a gurney through the hallway to help save Logan's life by a transfusion of his blood. 

***

Max just sat waiting to hear news about where or not Logan would make it. However, what scared her the most was that she felt that she as responsible for it all, the troubles with her people. Aspen was attempting to help her out as in the fact that they had to deal with issues from her community. Knowing that, Alac and the other Transgenics that she knew were spread out through out the city. She felt as if she was all-alone with her problems. But a day or so later, after she bailed Alac out of jail for the murders which his brother Ben performed the year before, forced her to deal with some of the issues about her past. 

Spending those hours with Alac made Max connect with whom her late brother was like. She could still hear Ben's stories in her mind as they all attempted to make sense of the world. She got over some of her anger at Alac was they sat down and drank their coffee. Alac talked a lot about some of the trouble that he went through as a kid. Though Max connected with Alac as a fellow brother, she wondered what it would be like if she had a child. Would her people be fully accepted by Humanity, or would they always be seen as freaks. Nevertheless, for those few hours, she was a normal person for once. Little did she know, that events connecting with Joshua would lead her to learn more about what it meant to be a family than she ever did while she was growing up. 

***

Melfina decided to swing by Joshua's so that she could find out what he was up to. The simple house in which Joshua lived was very elemental, though after the last few days when her people were revealed to the world, the fear she and the others had shared terrified them all. Aspen's "Boyfriend" Quinn almost had become linked in a very unhealthy way. However, Quinn was trustworthy enough that Aspen had started to tolerate him. But after Logan had Asha and a few of her Security First World buddies grab him in an nearby ally, Logan doing his Eyes Only impersonation to Quinn scared the crap out of him and made sure that he would keep Aspen and the other's secrets under his hat. 

After the events of being exposed to the world, Aspen knew that being with Quinn might be helpful later. However, there were terms that Quinn had to meet, first of all he had to ensure that anything he had seen, he would keep under his hat till Eyes Only said so. 

Mel had felt that being with Joshua might allow her to at least feel safe. Ever since the fire, Joshua had become her own lifeline to her sanity. As she walked through the front door of his place, she could smell the chemicals from the bug bomb that Max and Joshua had set off earlier. 

"Joshua." Melfina said as she slowly moved through the chemical filled environment. It took several moments for her to hear a reply. 

"Hi Shocky." Joshua said as he emerged from the bathroom. From the looks of it, Josh had recently bathed as he had a head full of doggie dry shampoo in his hair. 

"Whoa, Josh..." Melfina said as she saw the Dog Nomilie take up some serious bathing habits. 

"I know Shocky, Joshua turning over a new leaf. After Bugs tried eating me, baths are now very appealing to me." He said trying to hide the other reason for his interest in bodily hygiene. 

"Josh, Something tells me that you have a crush on someone." Melfina said looking at her friend's sudden interest in being clean. Joshua just stood there looking at his friend and realized that he had a lot of explaining to do. "Listen Josh, why don't I grab you some pizza and the both of us sit down and talk about who you have the hots for." 

"Okay, Listen since Shadow has Virus papers now, the Virus Bitch is going down for good." Joshua said wondering if Shadow had started on getting the cure made. 

"Yeah, this time he made photocopies and placed them at several places so if one gets lost, he can rebuild the formula from the backups." 

"Shocky, get sausage and cheese pizza and I'll tell you about her." Joshua said moving over the sink in the kitchen to wash the shampoo out of his hair. 

"Okay Josh, I'll be back in a little bit." Melfina said walking out the door. 

***

Jade had felt over the past few days since their kind had been revealed to the world, getting out of the preferable house had allowed her to regain some of her sanity. Though wearing the green hooded sweatshirt and the coveralls made her look like an oversized Winnebago on ridaline. 

"Jade" Allanbe said as she walked next to Jade in her Blue sleeveless jumpsuit in which she had on a tight black hooded sweatshirt that covered her head and a pair of yellow gloves. "Whac'ya thinking." 

"I don't know Allanbe, Just remembering some of my youth." Jade said as she kept hearing the dolphin sounds of the Gill people she meet when she was younger. 

"You're joking me, about that." Allanbe said as they walked into the Pizza Shack. 

"Allanbe, when I was a Kid, I used to sneak around the air ducks and see what was around the complex." Jade said as they started to move over to one of the tables near the wall and snagged another chair so that she could put one of her legs up. "I saw a lot of strange things, but that was until I saw the Gills." 

"Gills." Allanbe said in astonishment looking at Jade.

"Gills, a groups of kids that had what I said. Gills. Well, every time that we went by that section, I always heard some singing, A voice that was so beautiful that it made me and Shadow's youth tolerable." Jade said as she haired the Brunette Gill Girl's song in her head. 

"Shadow???" Allanbe said as she started to realize that Jade was talking about a member of her unit and that they, like the rest of the X-series had secretly taken names. "The same Shadow that had banged you up and added that extra thirty pounds of weight that is sited on your belly."

"Yes, the same one." Jade said as she looked out to the patrons in the restaurant. Ever since she had heard that Shadow was alive from the Lady Chimera and Eyes Only broadcasts several days ago. The fact that a member of his new unit did what she did in public would have gotten her tossed in the brig for a year and serious reendocernization for her actions. However, if unconventional you wanted well it was unconventional they got with the soldiers from Manticore. 

Then she decided to ask Allanbe to get their pizza. As Allanbe walked over to the order counter, she saw something she thought she would never see in public, another barcode on the back of a person's neck. 

***

"Shadow, Listen I know that Aspen has been acting weird over the last few days, but what in the Blessed Blue Lady is she smoking because why would she want us to come here to get pizza." Melfina said looking at Shadow, then as they placed their order of their meal, they noticed something about the girl behind them as they went to sit down to wait for their pizza to come up. Then there was the sudden feeling that they were being watched, and then Shadow turned around to see a face that he thought he would never see again. There was Jade sitting with a dark haired girl in a blue jumpsuit right across from him. Some higher being had guided them there. 

***

Jade just stared at Shadow for several moments as the girl next to him moves slowly over next to him as Allanbe took up an defensive posture towards this treat that stood before her. Then Jade decided to break the tension by confirming or denying who she was seeing. 

"Shadow???" Jade said as she examined the features the person who stood before her. Then she heard the words from a voice she never thought to hear. 

"Jade." The tension was quickly broken as the two of them rushed towards one another and hugged as it was going to be their last moment. 

"I missed you, Blessed be the Blue Lady, your alive Jade." Shadow said as the tears started to come out his eyes like a flood. Jade reached up and held him tight then there an abrupt kick from Jade's belly. 

"Hey down there, I'm trying to have a conversation here." Jade said to her unborn child. Then there was a realization that everyone in the restaurant was looking at them.

"Uh, I'd think that once our meal orders come up we better adjourn to somewhere else so that we can continue to have this conversation in a more private place." Said Melfina as she got a look at the people around both her and Jim, this was the mother of all Shit Fucks that could happen in an open place. 

"I agree with your friend Shadow," Said Allanbe moving over to help Jade to her feet and Allanbe handed her the order number to Melfina and se went over the pickup counter and grabbed both pizzas. With a few moments, they were all heading to Joshua's house to eat some pizza. However, Allanbe would have her first encounter with a Nomilie. 

***

Joshua was listening to the radio, and enjoying painting Annie and her guide dog Billie, he finally felt like he was able to be free for that little time each day. He was part of the world outside and was proud to be alive. Then he got a knock on the door and realized that Melfina was probably back with their pizza. Joshua cracked the door open just enough for him to see out and he saw Melfina standing there with two extra large pizzas, But there was a sent of two other Transgenics with them. Judging from the talk outside Josh got the feeling that Shadow and Melfina were working on the right way to introduce him to them. 

***

"Well Jade, Allanbe, Josh is not used to having people drop by his place uninvited." Melfina said knocking on the door. 

"Well what is it with your friend." Allanbe said trying to figure out why Shadow and Mel were so apprehensionous about him. "Ante like he is a Nomilie?" She continued. 

Shadow paused for a moment to decide whether or not to spill the preferable beans but Josh cracked the door open to see who was there. That was when Allanbe got a look at Joshua and attacked through the door. 

"Nomilie..." Allanbe screamed as she started fighting as fast as she could to defend Jade from this creature would be attack. 

"Allanbe." Melfina screamed as she attempted to pull the X6 out of combat mode. Joshua was dodging and blocking when he could from all of Allanbe's kicks and punches. Then in fervor Melfina physically tossed herself into the line of fire to stop Allanbe. "Don't make me do this..." she said as at that moment Melfina was forced to use her eel DNA to shock Allanbe away. Allanbe just lay sprawled on the floor looking up at Melfina. 

"What the..." Allanbe said realizing that Melfina was an X-series custom like her friend Darrien. 

"Sorry Allanbe but Joshua is my friend." Melfina said reaching over to hug the huge canine Nomilie. 

"You mean that this large..." Allanbe said looking at the strange individual standing before her. "Guy," She paused, "is Joshua." 

"Yes, he is." Melfina said looking at the dark haired X6 who was sliding up off the floor.

"Whoa." Jade said looking as Joshua and Melfina headed over to one of the kitchen table's chairs so that she could start dressing some of Joshua's injuries. "This is Joshua?" The pregnant X-series said looking at the artist and philosopher Transgenic that stood before her.

"Yes." Shadow said wrapping some gauze and tape around some of the bruises on Joshua's ribcage. 

"I see that you're still the medic that I fell in love with." Jade said as she started to get the feeling that Joshua was not just the only Transgenic that he had used his medical skills on since the Fire. Over the next few hours, the five of them started talking about what they had been through since the fire and what had happened since they had found themselves in this new world of trouble. 

***

Annie Fisher was feeling through her clothing, though everything that she owned was organized through appearance, color and texture. She felt the brail marking on the hangers as she started to wonder what would look good of her date with Joshua. Billie started to bark at her acceptation to Annie's yellow blouse and floral print skirt. Billie was always right when it came to choosing out clothing for special occasions. Billie had a good taste for people and clothing, for a dog. 

***

Melfina went to visit Allanbe and Jade at their base of operation with Jim. Jim with his messed up blond hair and Mel with her foffy hair looked like rejects from a Japanese Anime convention. It wasn't until that she knocked on the door that she got the biggest shock of her life in seeing Max answer the door. 

"Max." Melfina and Jim said both at the same time. At that moment Jade came to the door, and moved the younger version of Max out of the way. 

"Melfina." Jade said as she brought Mel and Jim into their little abode. When they entered, they realized that there were at least seven other Transgenics with Jade. 

"Hey Jade, you said drop by anytime. Well I'm here." The X-Series Custom said as she looked around to gain a sense of the people in the room. "Why don't you do the introductions Jade, I'm sure that getting to know your crew would be interesting." 

"Well lets get started." Melfina said as she looked at Max's clone more intensely. 

"Why are you looking at me so intently?" The younger Max said. 

"What's your name and designation?" Melfina said looking at the clone. 

"Danni, X6-453. Why do you ask?" Everyone in the room looked at the two X6s as they started talking. 

"Because I know your X5 Clone, and the two of you are very much alike, its scary." Melfina said as Danni took up the "No I'm not." stance towards everyone. 

"Whoa, well anyone else that you know as being the clone of someone that you have run into present here." Danni said. 

"No. but I would like to get know the rest of the team." Melfina said waiting for the other shoe to drop. 

"Well I'm Grace, X-series Custom, Brainic series. The one that had send Jade and Allanbe to the pizza place." The Brainic said slowly moving over as her stealth cloak fluxed so that she became visible to them all. 

"I'm Domo, X5, Alpha series and leader of this unit, you're pretty perky for an X6." Domo said as his stance changed from being behind the scenes to being in front for everyone to know. 

"I know, but I'm a X-series Custom, Bio-cyber computer specialist. Quirky is part of my personality." Melfina said putting forth what she was. 

"Domo. She is just trying to figure out where we stand on being with those she has come into contact with." A little blond X8 girl said as her slightly messy fomage hairstyle and near shoulder length ponytail from her nape down. 

"Fiona, I know that you are a latent PsyOp, but could you at least stop butting in." Domo said as the mood in the room rapidly changed. 

"Domo, Melfina here is just attempting to deal with the conditions that we are presently in. Add to the fact that you are just as subtle as a brick, now just let her get to know the rest of us." Fiona said as her mental powers made them selves known to those in the room. 

"Okay, the scraggy guy in the utility jacket with the scruffy beard is Darrien, he's a X-series Custom Stealth unit. He's the practical joker of the group and he has 37 confirmed kills to his record." Domo pointed out. 

"Fiona, the X8 PsyOps kid that you met, who has become the resident "soul" of the group and by her is Van, a X8 Marine Tiger-stripe who is protective of Fiona, though she tends to get on his nerves. In addition, you have already met Jade and Allanbe. So what have you two been up to sine the fire." Domo finished and let Melfina and Jim take the floor. 

"Well where do I begin, Meeting Max and the Transgenics that she has run into or get down the mission the me and the other got off of to stop a killer of our people." Mel said looking into the faces of the people around her. 

***

The hours that Annie had spent with Joshua were the best of her life. the sensuous way that he guided her hands over one of his paintings was as if she could see again. The near sensuous ways that his broken grammar made her feel so alive. Joshua was an artist who enjoyed the simple things in life; heck the Macaroni and cheese with mini sausages reminded her of her childhood. However, something had come up when she visited Joshua again today, there was stress in his voice. He had to leave town to go home to visit his family do to there being an emergency. 

Though, the chance to touch his face was a memory she would always cherish. Little did she know that she would be meeting Joshua again under the worse conditions possible, and that she would die at the hands of a man out to destroy his father's work. 

***

TBC

***

Chapter 12: The Muse, Meeting Jade, and the Death of Annie

I used would thank the "Kyre Dark Angel fansite" at for the transcripts of the sections from "Hello, Goodbye" and "Dawg Day Afternoon" who helped me refresh my memory of Dark Angel Season 2. 

Next time: 

Chapter 13: Love Among the Runes through Freak Nation, secondary bases and the Navy to the rescue. 


	11. Ch 13 The Events of the Seige, Inside an...

Hidden Danger Crouching Cat.

By Shannon Hearn

The characters of Dark Angel are owned by Twentieth Century Fox Television and Cameron Eglee productions. All other characters are of my creation.

***

Parental advisory: This chapter is rated "R" due to it containing mild sexual content and nudity. 

***

Chapter 13: Love Among the Runes through Freak Nation, secondary bases and the Navy to the rescue. 

***

The hours after Annie Fisher's death were the hardest on Joshua. Between him just emotionally breaking down and tossing his art supplies around was the hardest thing for Max to see. Annie had made Joshua's life almost tolerable during this time of turmoil they were all going through. Now with her death, he was a wounded animal just trying to get through the hours of the day without experiencing the pain of his loss. Max saw that bit of her brother Zack that was now inside of her scream, you are better off without him. But a part of her yelled but he is a part of me as well. 

What about the people she had helped both human and Transgenic, what about them. She felt like the world was better off with her leaving Logan and the others as she stared out from her favorite perch on top of the Space Needle. Little did she know that fate would make her have a close look at her self by the mirror images of her life of the paths she might have taken in life. 

***

For Melfina going to work since Joshua had been framed for Annie Fisher's murder was the hardest thing for her to do. The constant seeing "Wanted: Dead or Alive" poster with Joshua's face on it was slowly tearing at her. The constant use of the makeup on the back of her neck was going to definitely going to be leaving a ring around her collar, even though it was the long lasting but security was now a priority. Max and Alac had their barcodes etched off by laser, but it would not last long and the other Transgenics in the area started to lay low for a long time. Though Melfina thought about her friends at the docks and at the T-Bloods church. Even after Normal attempted to shoot Sky when those two jerks slapped that phony barcode on the back of his neck. Max had to blur right in front of everybody just to disarm him. Fake Transgenic revealing a true Transgenic at place of work, she could see the headlines now. Then there was a pause. Shit, this was not going to be a good day. Spending some time at Rain's place might calm her down. Nevertheless, the plague of human existence just walked into the room. Quinn. What was Aspen's sprit sense on when it decided to use this guy in their future? 

"Hey Melfina," Quinn said as his hippie self stood right next to her. 

"Quinn, could you please get out of my way before I knock you flat on your preferable ass." Melfina said as she attempted to restrain herself from tossing the idiot across the room with one arm. 

"What... " Quinn said taking a step back to avoid being hit by Melfina. "All I wanted was to know where Aspen was at." He stammered to wonder what had set her off. 

"Sorry Quinn, " Melfina said looking at the Hippie. "I just have been under a lot of pressure lately dealing with the fact Joshua was framed for murder." 

"You mean Dog Boy." Quinn said realizing that he was the large Nomilie that he had met several days earlier who Melfina was talking about. "Sheesh, Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time." 

"Given the fact that members of Joshua's "unit" were known for their aggression in taking down their subjects during their missions, it couldn't have been him." Melfina said after she remembered talking with Grace right after the Annie Fisher incident. 

"Listen Mel, I know that Joshua is taking it hard, but how about we do something for a little while, you know help Aspen do whatever she is doing." Quinn said looking at Melfina as she attempted to cope with the world she now lived in. Every Tom, Dick and Harry were after anyone that was different, hell after what Normal had done earlier she was still on end. 

"Listen Quinn, how about after I knock off of work, you and I go do some grocery shopping, grab a movie and head over to Rain's place and spend some time together. Well." Melfina said rolling the toe of her sneaker and biting her lower lip. "Get to know each other a little better." 

"Okay. So what's Aspen up to?" Quinn said getting back to his original train of thought. 

"Helping Hannah and the other Nymphs set up a new home for themselves." She said as she realized how she had talked her way out of doing Scuba duty. Boy did she need to do some serious praying tonight. Blessed be the Blue Lady. 

***

Aspen head broke the surface of the water inside the artificial dome. Steinbeck was right this place would offer Hannah, Richard and their kind plenty of room in which to live. Over in the corner Steinbeck was pulling of his facemask and walking over to the organic sponge filter to increase the nutrients to the system. The bio-mechanoid unit started to work more and more as the sponge started breathing on its own and oxygen started to be produced. 

"Steinbeck. How did you find out about his place?" Shadow said looking around at the large structure before him. 

"Well several years before the Pulse, there was a research team that wanted to set up a long term observation post. But with all things scientific, they ran out of funding." Steinbeck said remembering the old times. 

"Let me guess, you were one of the guys who had the funding run out on them." Aspen said as Hannah broke the surface to see a home that was safe from intruders. 

"No, actually I was one of the guys that built the structure. I was in College at the time and they were looking for anyone with dive experience to inflate a balloon the size of a four-bedroom mobile home and set up a ribbed outer lining. So pretty much we are sitting in a big metal balloon." Steinbeck said as Hannah walked over to the underlying structure of the floor. The coldness made her wonder why would anyone want to pump air into such a cold place. 

"Steinbeck..." Hannah said moving over to the Marine Biologist. "I know that many of my branch of this series breathe water. So are you going to make tanks for us to sleep in?" 

"Yes I am, but I brought you all down here so that we could start getting the place set up. You know how you want the structure designed on the inside since you lost your last sanctuary to Limpkin and his boys finding out where you all live." Steinbeck said pulling out of one of his pouches several black permanent markers and started to pass them around to the various water breathing Transgenics. 

"So, you want us to mark out on the floor where we want your individual tanks to be put?" Lucy said as she started to pull her speed suit off so that she could move around more freely. It was a bit of a shock for Aspen, Shadow and Steinbeck to see the Seal Nomilie suddenly naked before them. But for Shadow it made sense, she was getting comfortable with her surroundings. For Shadow, started to understand that due to all the aquatic animals in their DNA, they felt better having their skin exposed to the elements, for it was what they were at home in. It was going to be a long day for them as they started to make the place feel homey for its new occupants. Jade would love to come down here after she had their child. Hannah and Richard would diffidently like to have the company, though there would have to be a rule, when "Landers" were visiting, the casual nudity was going to be a No No. Then Aspen got a sense that both She and Shadow would have to leave soon and get to Terminal City armed. Something that would affect them all was soon going to happen and she knew it. 

***

Max was just sick of it, the running, the hiding, not being able to touch Logan. Max had spent the last few hours talking to Joshua as he started to tear apart his paintings and toss them into the fire. He missed Annie so much that everywhere he looked around Father's house he had seen where she had been. Max had attempted to talk him down from going into Terminal City but he had made his mind up. He just hurt too much. 

Afterwards she had said goodbye to her roommate and closest friend Original Cindy. Cindy had gotten her through the hard times of her life, but this was a time that Cindy could not help her out. Max was fearful that Cindy would be caught in the crossfire if White would barge into their apartment in the process of capturing her. The first time that Max had met Cindy was when she was nearly run down by her on the bike she was on. The feeling that she could start to know this girl allowed her to feel like she was just a normal person. No superpowers, no running from men in Black Helicopters, she was just a normal girl for once. Cindy's friend Kendra needed a roommate and Max needed place to stay. What started to as a short-term place to live turned into a friendship that she cherished like another she had before. For once she had a family she could be with, well sisters at least. For the years she had known the two of them, she was for the times she was around them just a normal person. Now as she rode her motorcycle out of the city she got the feeling that someone was sneaking up behind her. Little did she know that she would soon encounter her path to destiny by meeting Samantha Swaboda-Affleck. 

***

Samantha Swaboda-Affleck or X5-453 as she was known at Manticore was desperate to get her life back. She wanted to be with her family again. For two years she was deep undercover doing Industrial Espionage, but she did not expect one thing to happen while she was on the mission, to fall in love. Looking at how Rick made her feel safe and at ease for once in her life, fearful that when her mission was over she would have to go through reconditioning so that she would forget him. However, all that changed when she learned that Manticore was destroyed. All her infiltration and information that she had gathered was worth nothing, but Rick and his little boy Daniel gave her a reason to go on. 

For those brief eight months she was happy, she was a normal woman for once, she had wanted to get married and Rick had asked her to do so. The ring on her finger was more than mere jewelry; it was a sign of the love she had discovered in her life. The night skiing with her husband and the hot tub sessions had made her think more about her life and what she wanted to do with it. She had a dream that she was looking at a mirror image of herself, but it was flesh and blood. She looked down at her rounded belly and had felt a kick, around her there were people gathered around her some of them she knew as the traitors from '09, and other she did not know. However, there was something that made her feel at ease in that there was a piece of paper before her giving her name, and the name of a child. Her child. Then she was thrown around in the dreamscape to see that it was several months earlier, and that there was a battle raging on. Her people were dying all around her, and then she saw a X-series Male with a sword start attacking a man in a black business suit. Blow-by-Blow, the Suit was challenging the X-series soldier and was winning. Then she saw Rick behind the wheel of a police car slamming the vehicle head-on into the Suit. The man who Rick had hit got up as if out of a horror movie, then suddenly she was joined by a black police officer, who along with her started shooting the suit until he fell to the ground. Then there she was thrust forward again in time to where she saw a girl baring many of her physical features sleeping in her lap looking out the window towards the night sky. She had known that imagery like this often occurred with the X-series about to encounter something major on their missions. But the PsyOps had ruled the dreams as a possible way for the Transgenics to gain a tactical edge in battle. 

Little did Sam know that she would be seeing the Suit face to face when he barged into her and Rick's apartment and took her captive. The raw shock of being forced to realize that she was mistaken for that traitor X5-452. She would probably die for the sins of her wayward older sister all because she shared the same face and nearly the same DNA. 

She was a slave again to her Manticore masters. If killing her older sister got her family back, and then she would kill without mercy. Rick and Danny were her world to her. She was not going to lose them. Little did she know that her quarry would give her the means to gain the freedom she so dearly wanted to have. It had taken her a day for her to track down 452's trail in the city of Seattle, first starting out with the running into the wayward X-series Boyfriend just outside of the Doctor's office who tended to her quarry. She just stared at the face of the rugged yet educated man who looked like he was seeing 452. So much of her wanted to scream, "Help Me, I'm her clone. White has my family." But all her Manticore training just got in the way and drowned out that voice. Over the succeeding hours, she had learned bits and pieces of 452's life, she was a bike messenger who roomed with a Nubian Queen, had a boss who was a real pain in the butt and that she had people that who she really trusted. But from the mood she had recently gotten about "Max" is that there was something brewing underneath the surface for the girl. It was not until she had caught up with "Max" later that night that things started to take on the feel of urgency. She started to chase her mirror image out of the city of Seattle that was until they started to pass a section in sector 7 called Terminal city. Sam felt that catching up with her counterpart was very easy, too easy for an experienced X5. Eventually Sam/X5-453 pulled up even with Max and just watched her for several moments, everything about this mirror image who she had been cursed to be related to would soon be out of her life. They rode side-by-side for a few moments before Max looked up. She was shocked to see that the other rider moving up next to her looked just like her. Then Sam made a decision to end this chase. X5-453 pulled out her gun and took aim at the rear tire of X5-452's bike and with all her training she instinctively shot out Max's rear tire. As Max wiped out Sam turned around and rode her bike back to ensure that her quarry was not torn up too much. If her prey was damaged too much Sam would never be able to see her family again. Heaven and God help her for the choices she was about to make. Sacrificing her older sister to save her family, why did things have to be so screwed up. Within an hour Sam would learn that the older sister who she so had hated since her youth would give her the chance to regain her humanity once again. 

***

Across town, the former son of Charles Sandeman walked through the layer of the once great Eyes Only alone. His team had been efficient in doing their job. With Eyes Only off the air, the mundane humans of this world would soon be cattle of Familiar kind. Five thousand years of selective breeding would soon lead his kind to taking a dominant role on the face of this planet. Then something caught his eye. It was a whiteboard that had some stuff written on it and all of it pertained to Manticore, what he saw on it made him chuckle. Eyes Only or Logan Cale as he was known to the world had figured out the enough about the origins of Manticore to start to connect it to the goals of the Familiars. If anyone got a clear look at this, they would start asking questions, so Ames decided to cover his preferable ass by erasing the words "Ames White" and "government cover-up" from the board. Just as he finished wiping the board with a wayward piece of cloth that he had found, his cell phone rang. He removed it from his pocket and heard the voice of X5-453, calling from what sounded like an abandoned building. 

"Yeah." White said waiting for the response he wanted to hear for the longest time.

"It's 453. I have her." The X-series clone said over her phone as she eyed her now captured prey.

"Is she secure?" White said almost salivating at the words.

The response from the clone was "She's not going anywhere."

" Where are you?" White said as he awaited the words eagerly. 

"An abandoned building. Corner of Parish and Beechwood." 

"All right. I'm on my way." White said as he glanced around the apartment. He and Logan Cale would meet and when they did, only one would live and the other would die. 

***

This was not shaping up to be a good night for Logan Cale. Eyes Only's operations had been traced, but luckily Logan had gotten out of his apartment slash base of operations with a bulk of his files intact. Watching across the way at the Storm troopers destroy his gear and many of his personal things the key things that they would never get was his determination and his pride to make the world a better place. After seeing the agent slam his fists against his desk was worth it. The guy was infuriated to no end and Logan enjoyed every minute of it. Nevertheless, he realized that he could never go back there ever again. Then as Logan drove on the road, he came across Max's abandoned bike by Terminal City. From the looks of it, she had wiped out, but the bullet hole in the rear tire stated otherwise. She was either injured or was running from someone, and nine times out of ten, the person whom she was running from was Ames White. Logan broke out on foot searching the former genetics facility for his Transgenic love. 

***

Down the road leading to Terminal City, White thought about what his father had done. Violate five thousand years of tradition. His father and several thousand others had decided to break with tradition. He would never break with their people's ways, the Coming would occur and he would ensure it. Those members o the Familiar Council did not deserve their place walking with the Gods of this planet. Why did his father have to join the Ker and their cause? Well if they believed in the War Bride, then let them rot. The one who would awaken the hidden powers of man and make life from the face of death. Yeah right. White's chain of thought was broken when his cell phone rang in his car; He answered it as the display on the phone read that of his Familiar superiors. 

"Fe'nos tol. Tell the Conclave I've found 452. I'll bring her to you." White said as he hung up the phone with almost enough force to break it. "...once I find out where she took my son."

He would make the pain that he had gone through with the loss of his son by her taking him that the torture he would perform would be sweet music to him. 

***

Back in Terminal city, Max was not having a good day. Lets see she was tied up with thick chains inside an abandoned building and she had, had the crap kicked out of her by her own clone. Sheesh, how many clones did Manticore make of her? Shot by her X7 version and now shot at and kicked the shit out of by her X5 clone. How did fate make her hate the original's guts with a vengeance. Though given the way that her clone was leaning against the post near her, given the look on her face she was diffidently from the same genetic template she was. 

You look familiar. Have we met before?" Max said trying to seek out some weakness or a backdoor that she could use to get an edge against her clone. 

"Yeah. In a test tube." The clone said trying to avoid conversation with the woman who she would be turning over to white within the hour. 

" Who came first, me or you?' Max said wondering is the person who she was dealing with was either her older or younger sister from Manticore.

"I'm 453." Her clone said attempting to stay isolated from her quarry. 

"Well, do what your big sister says and untie me." Max said as she attempted to hit the connection that they had between one another. Their common sense of humor, or at least their "sisterly" connection that they had being related ton one another.

"Sister? Yeah, right." Max's clone said as the humor that Max had attempted to get across failed. Then to spite her, Max's clone lit up a cigarette to act all tough and stuff. The same way that the rude teens of Max's youth attempted to act tough to those around them. Sort of an primitive attempt to become the Alpha of any group. But here the scene was almost humorous towards Max. 

To almost to spite her back Max acted like the big sister who she was, Max decided to do the thing that most Ordinary kids did when they saw a sibling doing something wrong. Rat their sibling out to their parents. 

"I'm gonna tell Mom and Dad." Max said almost whiney towards her "baby sister" in an attempt to defuse the situation. 

"Tell 'em I quit 'til yesterday." The Mirror X-series said as she looked down into Max's bag to get a look at what was in there. "So, looks like I interrupted a little vacation. Or were you skipping town?" 453 said rubbing in Max's sudden egress from Seattle all of a sudden. 

"Something like that." Max said as something she noticed started to become clearer. It was almost as if her clone was almost envious of her. 

"Same old 452." The clone said as Max started to catch the hint that there was something brewing underneath the surface for her sister. It was as if that her clone was in the same pickle she was in now with White being on her tail. 

"What's that supposed to mean?" Max said as she attempted to flush out some of the details of why her clone was doing this. 

"It's what you do, isn't it? Run away? Like when it got too rough for you back at Manticore. Bet you never once stopped to think about what they'd do to the rest of us. They wanted to make sure it wouldn't happen again, so they tightened the leash. We got the worst of it, your twins. Manticore figured since we had the same basic psychological makeup as the twelve of you, we were the greatest flight risks, so they hauled us into psy-ops for evaluation..." 453 said as the images of being tested and experimented on to ensure that this same mess did not occur again with the clones. Max had recalled some of the imagery from what Alac had gone through during the time they had spent several days earlier after she had broken him out of Jail. Alac had been so hesitant to talk about what he had gone through growing up but the details of this had become a part of him, and was probably the reason that he was so arrogant towards her friends. He was attempting to make up for the pain he had endured as a child. 

"...for six months. You have no idea what they put us through, do you? While you were out in the world, living the dream, we paid the price." The words coming out were almost like a cry for help or a demand for her placing before Max and order to kill her and take away all of the pain she had endured. 

""Living the dream" isn't exactly how I'd put it." Max said as she remembered her own childhood being constantly on the run, having an abusive foster parent, then all those years on the street being part of a gang of thieves so that she would be safe from harm. Then she realized that her clone was desperate for something but it would be a little while until she learned what was up as her clone said, "Oh, so it's too tough for you out here, too? Guess I don't feel so bad about turning you over to White, then. See, he got onto me because of you. It's been ten years since the first time you ruined my life. I'll be damned if I let that happen again."

***

Mel had just received the call from Alac; Joshua had gone through a state of full-blown self-destruction. Joshua was heading for Terminal city and if he wasn't stopped he would probably be committing suicide with a painter's dagger in his hands. Joshua had saved her life, now it was her turn to save his. She had lost her childhood friends the night of the fire; it was her turn to make sure that he got through this painful time intact. He needed to know that he was not the only one hurting from the pain of losing someone. Mel had gotten in touch with Jade and her unit. The group of X-series was searching through the old deserted buildings of Terminal City and started to find out that from the way that things had sounded for Joshua, it wasn't as hard as some of the folks in here. It was not until she discovered a twelve year-old girl following her. The pixie-est red hair, white shirt and scrounged up sown together paints stated that she was a street kid or some very resourceful X8. Then suddenly Mel blurred so that she could lose the half-pint but ran into Darrien instead. 

"Hey Darrien," Melfina said as she started to realize that there was something going on in Terminal City and it was not the usual group of trodden upon homeless people. 

"Yeah, What is it Mel." The X-series stealth unit said as he got an eerie feeling on the back of his neck. It was not something that any Transgenic wanted to feel at anytime in their lives. 

"Do you sense that change in the air?" Melfina said as she searched out the fact that there was someone behind them and they were not human. 

Quickly Darrien ducked away and disappeared into the darkness of the night. Melfina took up the position of being defenseless, but in true form, she was not. That was until she caught a glimpse at a mulatto woman in her late teens or early twenties standing right next to her. What scared the crap out of her was that she was a true to life Tiger stripe like Van. She was a Marine Transgenic. She was one of the Ohh-Ra's that Manticore had developed to supplement the X-series in the field. More combat training and a heavy sense of humor in what they needed to get done. However, what had made them to be known to the members of the Manticore community were the distinct stripes on their cheeks. The markings were seen as a symbol of pride and if you had tangled with one of them, well nice knowing you. 

"You're a Ohh-Ra." Melfina said as she examined the fact that she was not the only Transgenic in the area. Alac had said that he had encountered several of their kind in Terminal City, but from what he had said, they were not the nice type. 

"What series are you?" The female Ohh-Ra said as she moved over and grabbed Melfina by her shirt, nearly lifting her off the ground in the process. 

"X-series custom." Melfina said as she heard a click from off to the side. It was Darrien and his stealth cloak was dissipating as he held his gun next to the Ohh-Ra's head. 

"Same here." Darrien said seeing that the Ohh-Ra was heavily reconsidering her options before her as he held the gun to her head. "Listen we don't want any trouble, we're just looking for our friend." Darrien said as Mel was lowered to the ground. 

"So, What's your name?" Melfina said as she started to look around at the surroundings using her night vision. 

"The Name is Luna, X5." Luna said as she got a good look at Darrien, and grinned. "So, you're looking for a friend of yours. What series is he?" She said as she started to sum up the Transgenics before her. 

"He's a Nomilie, uh one of the old Dog Soldiers series, about seven and a half feet tall." Melfina said to her fellow Transgenic, but there was something that worried her about the way Luna behaved when she asked what series Joshua was. She got the distinct feeling that Luna did not like Nomilies. 

"You might try looking around the area past Oak Street, that's where many of his kind hang out at." Luna said as the same red-haired Asian girl who was stalking Mel earlier came up and said hello. 

"Hey, Luna so what's up? There has been a lot of activity in the area and I think you better see this." The girl said as she started pulling Luna with her to one of the buildings. 

"Okay E-Gad. I'm coming. I'm coming." Luna said nearly being dragged across the open area of the street. "What is it?"

"It looks like there is some bunch of Ordinaries about to have a serious dispute by Parish and Beechwood." E-Gad said as they entered one of the buildings that had been retrofitted with lots of plants and other biological material so that they provided food and medicines for the residents of the structure. 

"Listen, who are the other Transgenics living in this area?" Melfina said looking Luna. 

"The leader of the Nomilies around here, is named Mole, an old Desert Combat unit so I'd better watch out, you two, he tends to be a little trigger happy around people." Luna said sitting down at a large counter that had been turned into a sort of impromptu kitchen. "If your friend is here, he's probably with them."

"Okay, We'll see if we can find him. But thanks for the help." Darrien said as they started to leave. 

"I'll call Shadow on my Cell phone and tell him that we have a lead on Joshua. Nice talking with you Luna." Melfina said as they left her little abode. Little did they know that Luna and her little community of X-series and Moles pack of Nomilies would soon be forced to take on their common enemy on their home turf. 

***

Back across Terminal City in the abandoned building, Max watched her clone X5-453 put her wedding ring on. Then Max realized why her clone was so desperate to get her and get white off her back, she had a family she cared about. It was Tinga all over again, What was White doing to her loved ones. The image was so horrible that she had to put it out of her mind. 453 was her concern, now how to make her an ally. 

"You're married? " Max said as she started to pump her for information. The more she had the more of an edge she would have in helping her sister out.

"I have a husband and a little boy." X5-453 said as tears started to form in her eyes. As she desperately wanted to fee the caress of her husbands hand against her cheek. 

"You're lucky.' Max said as she realized that if it wasn't for the virus and the death of her sister. Life had been so unfair to her, if she had a chance to make things better, she would make a good attempt first to ensure that 453 got her family back. 

"Yeah. You know, I had a nice, normal life...until White came looking for you and found me instead." 453 said in a sarcastic yet angrily glare at her. The pain in her eyes told her all she needed to know. Family was precious to every one, even to an X5. 

"He has them. I'm sorry." Max said with understanding about the situation she was in. Then Max saw a way out, was it an illusion of in the distance. Logan. Then he moved as he picked up a lead pipe lying on the ground nearby and laid in wait. All he was waiting for was the right moment to move to help her. 

"Yeah, well, I get them back once I turn you over to him." 453 said knowing that to get out of this, she had to deal with the devil to get back those she loved. 

"That's if he keeps his word." Max said laying out what she knew about that bastard White. He had backstabbed before, and he would backstabbed again, her sister did not know what she was getting into. White was a major player, who needed to be dealt with major firepower and troops. No Lone X5 would be able to do the mission alone. This had to be a major assault to get the job done. 

"Don't have a lot of options, do I? This is my family. Maybe you don't know what that means. Maybe you'd just run off and save your own hide, like you always do. Not me." 453 said in an almost spiteful way as she attempted to figure out hot to get out of this mess and realized that she connected with Max in the worst possible way. He had connected with her sister. 

Then 453 heard a noise in the distance and walked away to check it out. Max realized that Logan was planning something to help get her out of this predicament. Logan emerged from the shadows and approached Max uncertain if it was really her or her clone. 

"Logan!" Max said pleading attempting to convince that she was herself. 

"You okay?" Logan said as he debated whether or not Max was Max or the clone. 

"Untie me. Hurry." Max urged as if her life depended on it. Then as Logan started to loosen the chain that held her to the support column of the building. Then he pauses when he started to doubt who she really was. 

"What?" Max said as she realized the doubt had finally won out in his mind. She needed to have some password for him to know it was her, heck like a pet nickname that she would like to be called in bed like Calla Nina Gato (Beautiful Cat Girl). 

"How do I know it's really you?" Logan said as 453 returned from checking out the distraction that he had used to get to Max. 

"Logan?" 453 said to Logan as she pretended to be her twin sister. Attempting to convince Logan that she was 452 herself. But Logan was caught off guard by the appearance of this other Max.

"Max?" he said to Max as she struggled against her bonds slowly working herself free.

"Logan!" Max said nearly pleading for him to help set her free from her bonds.

"Don't untie her!" 453 said attempting to prevent her quarry from escaping, and then as Logan realized who she was; the clone ran over and kicked him in the head. The force of the blow rendered him unconscious as he hit the ground like a sack of potatoes. 

"Hey!" Max said angrily as she had worked her way lose from chains that held her as she rose up to confront her clone. It was time to give some serious sisterly advice. 

"Guy's really stuck on you, huh?" 453 said realizing it was time for the two of them to go toe to toe with each other. Oh Niner verses the career soldier. Sister against sister. Damn, 452 had almost the sane taste in men she did. Well it was time to get serious. 

"I thought I was a bitch, but you take the prize." Max said as the two women started to circle each other like the feral creatures they were. Then they began to fight. Max landed a few blows on her sister while the clone did the same. They were evenly matched physically, now it was all up to their individual fighting styles and skills that they possessed. As they fought, they increasingly used their own talents they had, that was until 453 got a hold of Max during the fight from behind. 

"It's no use. I've got ten years of training on you." 453 said as she got a hold of her sister attempting to squeeze the life out of her using all of the additional training she had at her disposal. 

"Yeah, well, they didn't teach you to fight dirty." Max said, as she broke free from her sister's grip. In all of Max's years on the run, the thing that she had learned the hard way was that no matter how strong or fast you were. You were always susceptible to the old fashioned sucker punch. With that 453 fell to the ground unconscious. Now since White was on his way, there might be a way for her to help her sister out by getting her family back. Now all it would now require now is a change of clothes. 453's clothes. Blessed be the Blue Lady, this girl seriously needed to have better taste in clothing, heck even Max's own battle garb had better taste in style than this girl's. 

*** 

Later, as White arrived at the building, little did he know that the was walking into a trap. Max, who had dressed up as 453, lit her cigarette looked at the events that she had put into play so that her plan would come to fruition. X5-453, who was now is dressed up in Max's clothes had been chained to the same post that had held Max earlier. Now all she had to do was act more like the Queen bitch 453 was and she was home free. 

"Where the hell have you been?" Max said getting into her part as 453. For the moment, White was buying it lock, stock and two full-blown smoking barrels. 

"I had a thing." White said in his usual Familiar superiority way towards his reported Transgenic Flunky trying not to say what he had truly been up to covering his ass from assaulting Eyes Only's base of operation. 

"Where's my family?" Max said as 453, with worry and pleading to get her sister's family back. This was not going to be another Tinga incident she reminded herself. 

"All in good time, 453." White said planning on how he would shoot this abomination in the head after he was done with her. But, first he wanted the information out of her head of where his son was. 

"Yeah, right." Max said as Logan had snuck up behind White with the lead pipe that he had picked up earlier. When Logan swung the pipe White did not know what hit him, as the jerk landed on the floor like another sack of potatoes. Payback and Karma were inseparable partners tonight, Logan thought. 

***

Later as White woke up he found himself chained to the post next to X5-453 who was still dressed up 452. 452 was standing over him looking really, really pissed off. The creature that had spited him on so many occasions looked like she was about to do some serious damage to him. 

"Ames White. I oughta put a bullet in your head. But twenty-odd years ago, me and her got cooked up in the same test tube. So, in my book, that makes us sisters." 452 said leaning over him making sure that he knew that she was in charge of what was going to happen to him next. Blasted his father for creating these things to thwart the Familiar's destiny of the world. 

"Get to the point." He said wanting to avoid listen to this creature any more than he could. 

"The point is, I'm gonna trade your sorry ass for her husband and kid." 452 said as something in 453's eyes realized that her older sister was going to save her sorry ass. She said leaning over to make sure that he knew that there was going to be some serious circumstances that were about to come about if he did not comply. 

"I don't think so." White said making sure this creature knew that he was in charge of the situation that he was in, even if he was chained up. All he needed was a chance and these "people" would pay for what they have done to him. 

"No? Well, then, I guess we get to find out how high your pain threshold really is." 452 said as she started examining the lead pipe in her hands and started playing with it as if it was a child's toy as she seriously debated pounding the crap out of him if he did not do what she wanted. Dad, if I find you, you are already dead. 

***

Inside of Terminal City Alac was doing his best to negotiate with the local natives. However, his main concern was to figure out what happened to Max. 

"I thought Max was with you." Alac said to his Nomilie friend trying to fish information out of him. 

"No. Is she all right?" Joshua said starting to worry about his friend. 

"I don't know." Alac said to Joshua. 

"You don't know?" Joshua was to the point of annoyance at his X-series friend. 

"I don't know." Alac said attempting to defend his position as good as best he could. Then Alac's attention turned towards the Reptile Desert unit Transgenic who was almost to the point of fuming at his presence of being there. 

"He can't stay here." Mole said pointing towards Alac as he started to march over to where the X-series soldier was standing. 

"Easy, pal, I'm not planning to." Alac said to Joshua as he planned to leave. "I'll hook up with you in a couple days, okay?" Alac said looking towards his friend as he started to walk away. If Joshua needed some time to deal with Annie's death then he would let him be for now. 

"Okay." Joshua said with a deep sigh as something Luke was watching on the security monitors got his attention big time. 

"Guys! What are they doing here?" Luke said as his furry rat ears perked up with curiosity as he saw several people walk by the surveillance camera's view. With that they all turned their attention was the four people walking across the old abandoned nearby structure. Alac instantly recognized the women walking with them. Max and one of her clones, as well as Logan walking with a very handcuffed Ames White right through the center of Terminal City at gunpoint. 

"Just a bunch of humans." Mole said as the thought of having disgusting humans walk around his living place made him sick to his stomach. 

"It's Max." Alac said as he attempted to appeal to Mole's sympathy towards his fellow Transgenics to help them in their time of need. 

"You know her?" Dix said as he glanced back towards the monitors and looked at the two women on the screen. 

"She's a friend. She's X-5." Joshua stammered out in an attempt to clarify details about his friend to his fellow Transgenics in attempt to win support to help Max out in the situation she was in with Logan. They needed help bad and they would soon need backup to get out of the mess they were in if White pulled anything. 

"X-5, huh? Not our problem." Luke said as he stated his distaste for being treated like dirt due to him being a service unit. Ever since he was a child, the Manticore personnel had seen him as a lesser being due to him having all that rat DNA being dominate in his facial features. Since the fire, he had become a person who was not seen as a trench-digging servant, but of a person of importance to the other Transgenics who he had come to know in Terminal City. If Joshua knew an X-5 then it was none of his concern if she was in trouble or not, she belonged on the other side of Oak Street. That was where her people were at, and they would help her if she got in trouble. 

"Yeah, well, you see that guy right there? He's in charge of hunting you down, so I suggest you make it your problem." Alac said pointing to White on the screen as, Melfina and Darrien walked in with their fellow X-series Luna and E-Gad. The residents of Terminal City would soon get vengeance for their fallen troopers and friends. 

***

Behind one of the podiums in the abandoned building Sam was stripping off Max's clothes as Max was doing the same. 

"Max..." Sam said looking at her big sister as she pulled Max's shirt off to hand over to Max. "Why are you helping me?" The look of worry in her eyes told volumes. 

"Well, 453, or should I call you something else?" Max said as she looked into her sister's eyes. This was one very scared and confused girl who did not know what was going on. 

"I go by the name Sam now." Sam said attempting to figure out what was happening. Max was very different from the reported traitor she had grown up hearing about. 

"Sam, the main reason that I am helping you out is that I know what it is like to run without any ties. Finding someone that you can be open with and care about you despite that you have a "colorful" past." Max said looking at Sam slip on the black shirt. 

"Yeah a few days ago me and Rick were considering about having a couple of kids other than little Danny." Sam saw the fears in her son's eyes as they started to pull him out of his room, as he was about to get undressed and go to bed. 

"Is, Danny your biological child?" Max said as she looked as Sam shifted around to see the still tied up Ames White look at Logan with the hatred that would burn out a thousand stars. 

"No, Rick had him from a previous marriage before his wife died. But in Danny's eyes I'm his Mom." 

"So, you never told him about what you were after we became public knowledge." Max said as her sister started to break down in tears. 

"Get a way from you snake." Sam said as Max approached then in a moment Sam let Max hold her as tears started flowing like a deluge as the events of the last few days started to catch up with her. 

"There, there I know." Max said holding her baby sister tight. "Me and my siblings fled Manticore after the death of my sister Eva." There was a long pause as the pain came to Max's voice. "She was the oldest of us, then one day she said no. No. A simple word for most everyone else, but a word that starts every revolution. She had gotten a hold of a guard's gun to protect one of my brothers after he started to go into a seizure. Then without word, Lydecker shot her where she stood. Just for protecting her fellow soldier." Then the look of horror ripped across Sam's face as she realized that the '09 escape was not a fleeing away from their responsibilities at Manticore, but an escape and evade from a hostile force. Their commanding officers. 

"You did what they trained us all to do, Survive." Sam said as she looked down at her watch. "White's men are going to be here in a few minutes. We better get going." 

"Yes, lets get your family back to you." Max said as the headed over where Logan and White were and toward their destinies. 

***

Later outside of the industrial research district that used to be called Advanced Recombinant Genetics Center, a black 2003 ford sedan drove into Terminal City. Standing in the middle of the street between buildings Max, Sam, White, and Logan stood waiting for the car to show up. As the car came down the street and stopped, White's Puerto Rican second in command Otto got out of the car along with another man. Their two back-seat passengers were the means to get their boss back after the infamous 452 had captured their boss. Never send a Transgenic to do a human's job. 

"Let's see what you're packing." Max said towards the man by the black sedan letting her training kick in, this was to get Sam's family back and it was going to at least work. 

"We're unarmed." White's second in command said as he and his aid opened his jacked towards Max and her clone. Keeping in mind that he was dealing with a seasoned professional soldier. 

"I don't have a whole lot of patience. I don't think you boys want to stay in Terminal City any longer than you have to." Max said looking at the two NSA men before her. She had spent too many years on the street to know that she was being jipped by an amateur. The look on her face spoke volumes as the two men looked at each other and Otto pulled a gun out of his jacket and set it on the ground. Max watched the man as she started to sense that there was something up but she needed to let it play out so that she would be on top of it. 

"All right, let's do this." Max said to the two men before her as she looked at how White's second in command was going to move. Then Otto moved over to get X5-453's husband and son out of the car. The two of them looked very scared after the events that they had been through. In a few moments' things would either end either good or very badly. Then Max set the events into motion, "Okay, on three. One...two...three."

"Is my son still alive?" White said glaring at 452 demanding to know where his son was after she had kidnapped him from the indoctrination ritual of the Familiars. 

"You won't be if you don't start moving." Max said, as she nearly had to kick him to make him move in the direction towards his men. White started to walk slowly towards his men as 453's husband and son headed in the opposite direction towards Max and the others. When they passed each other the tension started to become higher and higher. Then when White reached the place where the gun that Otto had laid on the ground, he jumped with years of training and moved his legs to where he had his hands before him and not behind him anymore. Then landing on the ground White scooped up the gun and turned around and aimed the weapon at Max and the others. Otto and the second man pull out their secondary weaponry from behind them as well as two other hidden men got out of the sedan with their weapons drawn. 

"Not another step." White said towards Max and the others, "Nice work, Otto." He commented to his inferior as he enjoyed this moment of victory. But that moment faded as they all heard a lot of guns cocking around them. They all look up to see a ton of Transgenics, all toting guns, a few with laser sights all aimed at White and his men. Max looked up to see Alac, Joshua and several other Transgenics she knew coming to her rescue. White looked at the situation that he was in and realized that he was ass deep in shit being greatly outnumbered by these creatures. 

"You guys want to throw down, go ahead. But a whole lot of people are gonna get hurt." Max said realizing that things were on her side for once and decided to use this tactical advantage to her edge, to make sure that White knew that a "Freak of science" had outclassed him. 

"This isn't over, 452." White said calling off his men as he started to grit his teeth to the point of almost breaking his rear molars in the process. "All right, gentlemen." With those words White got into the sedan and a few moments later his men lower their weapons and head for the car to drive away to safety. Then Max saw a Reptilian Transgenic lead 453's husband and son away from the area to a nearby building. Max had needed a miracle and she had received one. Her guardian angel must have worked overtime for this now she had to talk with her miracle givers. 

***

Inside, in the living quarters of Terminal City Max looked over at her sister X5-453 as she comforted her son. With all the strange beings moving around them, had put Sam's child on edge. Between the Werewolves, the Lizards, the Cats, the deformed Quasimodo figures, and the X7s were enough to make anyone scared out of their wits without them saying "hello" to you. 

"Sam, what's going on here?" Rick said to his wife after a Dog Girl had given him a cup of water for him to drink. As he felt as if the other shoe was going to drop in how she would explain that she had a twin sister he knew nothing about and knowing about all these "Creatures" that just has saved his and his son's life. 

"I'll explain everything later. Okay?" Sam said as she held her son tight and speaking lightly that the people around them would not hurt him or his dad. 

A short distance away, Max talked to Joshua in looking at the person who had shifted the political views of Terminal City to come down and help her out. 

"So I guess you really can take care of yourself...and me, too." Max said to Joshua as he growled playfully at her and planted a slobbery kiss on her forehead, when Alac approached. Joshua knew that he would be there for her. It was his responsibility now, to make sure that she was okay. Then as Joshua moved away Max turned her attention towards Alac who she had sent on a supply run for Sam. 

"Score anything?" Max said as she waited for Alac to respond. 

"Jacked an SUV from some, uh, gangster guys outside a strip club." Alac said as he handed her some car keys to the armored vehicle parked outside. 

"Thanks." Max said as she turned to look at Sam. With all that her sister had gone through, the concept of getting a life had taken on more meaning than she would ever know. It would not be easy for Sam to talk about her past, but for her to move on with her family she had to talk about it. 

"It's gonna be a long ride to Canada. She's got some explaining to do." Alac said knowing that in a way, helping save Sam's life had given him new meaning, he would have to talk to Asha about his past and about his late brother Ben. But that was for another time, for now it was time for Max to be with her clone sister Sam. 

"I appreciate this." Max said looking back towards Alac who she considered more of a brother now than she ever did before. 

"Yeah, no worries. Anything for a friend, or a clone of a friend." Alac said with a shrug of his shoulders as he turned to see Max walk away and head towards her sister. 

As Max approached Sam, the felling of uneasiness came towards the two of them. As the two sisters looked towards each other then realized that they understood each other from that point on as sisters. Blood sisters. 

"You're all set." Max said moving over to the now standing Sam who had left her son on the couch with her husband. 

"If you're expecting a thank-you, forget about it. None of this would've happened if it weren't for you." Sam said looking at her sister and realizing that they were not all that different from the other. 

"You're right." Max said glad that her sister had her family back, somewhere out there she could feel Tinga's presence touch her and know that she had prevented another tragedy from happening again. 

"You know, if Manticore hadn't gone down, you wouldn't even be with them. You know who took it down." Alac said as he looked pointedly at Max and walked away leaving Max and Sam to be together for a while. 

"Not bad." Sam said looking at her sister, what was unsaid between the two of them spoke volumes. They were family and would be until the day they died. 

"Good luck." Max said as she handed Sam the Keys to the SUV, knowing that in the future the two of them would soon meet again under better circumstances and not under the terror mess they were in now. 

"You, too." Sam said as she hugged Max as tears started to roll down her olive brown face as she walked away to be with her family and pack the SUV Alac had gotten for them. Leaving Max to think a lot about Logan and what they would be doing if they were able to get over this dammed virus in her system. Then Max saw him sitting a short distance away working on his laptop and fussing with cell phone so that he could receive a better signal on it. She walked over to see what he was up to on his system. 

"So White really messed up your place, huh?" Max said looking at Logan with is tote bag full of computer gear and files from his place. 

"Yep." Logan said, as he was able to get a temporary uplink to the Internet to check if all files from his removable external hard drives still functioned on the computer network he had set up years earlier. 

"I'm sorry." Max said looking down at her feel, feeling almost responsible for the damage she had inadvertently caused by coming into his life, by putting him on the government's most wanted and not being able to touch the woman with whom he had fallen in love with. 

"Got my files out. It's gonna take some pricey equipment to get Eyes Only up and running again." Logan said assessing the damage to what he needed for a satellite broadcast system. 

"You're going to need a good cat burglar." Max said leaning against one of the shelves that the reptile transgenic named Mole used to clean his weapons on. 

"Thought you were leaving town?" Logan said looking surprised at Max when she said that. 

"Nah. Got some family stuff to take care of." Max said looking around at all her people in the room. She was no longer alone, but now she had to make sure that she and her people had a future for themselves and for humanity. Max had been kicked in the head by her Guardian Angel to accept responsibility for what she had done letting her people loose upon the world. Now it was high time that she needed to become one of her people's key leaders for the future. 

***

As Sam was loading the SUV with supplies, she always took a look at the buildings of Terminal City. For that little bit Sam had felt safe, her people were at least safe and they had shown Ames White that he was not going to hunt them any more. Then at that moment a X5 male came out of one of the command center along with Max and a X6 version of her and started to head over to them. The look on Danny's face was worrisome in that he was getting use to the fact that Mommie had a sister but, the fact another one of her clones was coming with them was heavily disturbing. 

"Hey Sam, there is something thing that we forgot to give you." Max yelled as she started to sprint up to the SUV. 

"Max what is it?" Sam said getting the feeling it was something important for her and her family. 

"Its a phone number of some people we know in Canada that will help you get settled when you get there." Max said as she handed her sister a piece of paper. 

"So who is on this piece of paper?" Sam said as she looked at the names on it. 

"Friends of Eyes Only and a few Transgenics that I have been able to get across the boarder to Canada." Max said remembering the group of X6s she had helped across the boarder right after the Manticore Fire. They all had a sense of humor but had a lot to learn about the world they were now in. Max hoped that the X5 she had sent up right after White attempted to wipe the Transgenic population off the face of the planet with a bio-weapon would straighten the bunch out and give them some more knowledge about the world. From what she had heard over the last few months there was a growing transgenic colony in Canada as well one in Mexico with her sister Bree. Max had received a photo in the mail of her sister and a bouncing baby girl, Lil Max. Then Max got back to reality with her twin sister. 

"Sam, There is a colony of our people up there and some of us have families like you." Max said reaching over to hold Sam's hand. "I know it won't be easy to explain everything to Danny and Rick alone about your past but having people who have been through it might help you out." 

"Hey Sam," Shadow said as he looked at Sam, "keep in touch okay because you have a baby sister here you have to worry about you might want to lessons from you." The X5 male emphasis as he pointed to X6 453. 

"Hey, take that back, I can handle myself." X6-453 said looking at 452 and 453. 

"Yeap. Max, I have to tell you she is definitely like us." Sam said as her son hugged closer to her leg. Then Sam looked down at her son, "It's okay Danny, and she won't bite."

The look on the X6's face was the "okay it is way of consequence for me to take." As she started to help load the stuff into the SUV to get Sam on the road as soon as possible. 

"Yeah, tell me about this, I am way too creped out by all of this." The X6 said trying to digest all of the facts before her.

"There is a check in number and emergency number so that we can get hold of you and you can get hold of us if something comes up." Shadow said as he finished helping Sam and her family get on the road. 

"I'll check in a few days." Sam said as she and her family got in and head off into the night. For the residence of Terminal City it was a start of a new day for them all, now they had to ensure that they would have a future. 

The first thing they would have to do was to expose White for his escalating of the Transgenic Violence in the city and make sure that whoever was pulling his strings got the point to leave the Transgenic community alone Permanently. Bad guy head on the platter anyone. 

***

The next day, Senator McKinley was sitting behind his desk conducting another Senate hearing over the entire Manticore Fiasco. Before him as Ames White wearing his blue suit looking very coy, and given what had happened the night before with the Transgenics Ames was looking like he was going to get some payback against them. As usual there were lots of reporters hanging around the room like flies on the wall. White's superior was also there in the room with him and given what would happen in the next few moments would piss his boss off and give him the weapons to finally get rid of his Father's legacy to save Mankind.

"Committee calls to the stand Special Agent Ames White. Now, Agent White, I'm sure you've been instructed by counsel and by your superiors to invoke your Fifth Amendment right. But I want to remind you, as an officer of this committee and as your fellow American, that all this committee is interested in is truth." Senator McKinley said knowing that White would blow the roof off of the entire Manticore Fiasco. 

"The truth, sir, is quite simple. Did parties within our government secretly divert funds for genetic experiments? Yes." White said playing his part to the hilt. The murmurs of the crowd and the look on his superior's faces were worth what he needed to do. 

"Did they allow those transgenics to escape? Yes. Did they then choose to withhold that information from the American people? Yes. Are those transgenics dangerous? Most assuredly, yes." Plans were going to be seriously in effect, knowing that McKinley was a Familiar would give him the ability to get revenge on 452 with a vengeance. Little did White know that on the other side of the content events were unfolding that would bring about his downfall. 452 was heading to work to get her life back on track. 

***

Meanwhile at the offices of Jam Pony package delivery, Normal and all the other messengers are watching the Manticore hearing on the High-definition Television that almost daily played Music Videos and Soap Operas. 

"And I cannot, in good conscience, continue to be part of this cover-up." Ames White said to the Committee as he started to piss off a ton of politicians and gain a shit load of supporters. 

"That, my friends, is a true patriot." Normal said acting like a proud American he was. If he knew the truth about White, he would instantly change his nationality and move to Canada. 

"These Transgenics are a great threat to our national security and our American way of life. Make no mistake. This is a war...a war we cannot afford to lose." White continued to say on the Television as Max entered behind the crowd of Messengers and friends as she snagged the remote from Normal's desk and turned off the TV, as she was about to toss a tape gun through the plasma screen.

"Hey!" Normal said in a moment of shock as the screen went blank before everyone. 

"Bip bip bip, people. C'mon, these packages aren't gonna deliver themselves." Max said going into a impersonation of Normal trying to break everyone's thoughts about Transgenics and national threats for the time being. But she knew that the seeds of doubt had been planted in their minds, she now had to tell the world that the Transgenics were not the threat but Ames White and his crones were. The look from Normal and Sketchy for that minute afterwards forced her to think that the next few days and weeks, she would soon learn who her true friends were and who just considered her a person that they knew. 

"You heard her. Get back to work." Normal said as the messengers scattered to their duties deliver packages and fixing up their bikes. But both he and Sketchy still looked at her strangely thinking that they might have a Transgenic in their midst before them. 

"What? You got something to say?" Max said acting normally as possible as she wanted to see how Normal and Sketchy would act. 

"Not me. Nope." Normal said trying to act as normally as possible somewhat unprepared for how Max would behave if he found out is she was something other than human. He was praying that he was better than bluffing his way out than he was at playing poker. 

"No. It's all good." Sketchy said siding with Normal knowing that she wouldn't do anything serious with so many witnesses around. He hoped. Shit after being interrogated by those Men in Black, being face to face with a real Transgenic would definitely clean his bowels very thoroughly. It was not until the both of them walked away that they let out a sigh of relief. Then a moment later Max hugged Original Cindy letting her friend know that she was back with the words. 

"Miss me?"

Over the next few days Cindy would be let in on the fact that Max, Alac, Aspen and Melfina would not be the only Transgenics joining them at work. 

***

Since the days of the Chemical fire that forced many of the researchers out of Terminal City and set in motion the decline of Seattle's business district. But since the Manticore fire the new Residence of Terminal City had started to turn the area into a place that was somewhat habitable for them to live in. Other than the occasional nut job or desperate individual having to lay low in the toxic sludge, the place was very quiet. Now the residence had started to organize the entire twenty-block area into a halfway decent colony. Max had gotten the leaders from the different units from all over Terminal City to start helping each other out; command staff, security, supply, construction and engineering, sanitation, reconnance, communication, medical, and heck even if a person had some cooking skills would be placed in helping feed all these people. 

Max did not like the bigoted crap about the Nomilies and the X-series separating each other from the other group. This was a battle for survival. With Mole's old place where Joshua had correndated her rescue in the center of Terminal City had led to the modification of that building into the command center. Whatever structure that could be fixed up was used for either Living Quarters, Command and repair bays, and finally storage vicinities. Alac had gotten a hold of a few of his old buddies from his former unit such as Biggs and CeCe to join the crew at Jam Pony. But setting up the medical facility for all the pregnant females such as Jade had become a priority for the new members of the colony. Little did everyone know that events that would bring White right to their front door in the next couple of weeks. Luckily, Shadow and Max had decided to keep the Aquatics and the T-Bloods colonies outside of Terminal City around so that they could work as delivery service and as a fall back point if Terminal City ever got stuck in a lockdown or siege situation. But, Shadow would be caught off guard when he had to enact plan "B." 

***

It had been a few days since Terminal City started to become a significant base of operations and after Shadow and several other Transgenic Field Medics and field Surgeons started to realize that some of the pregnant females had some unique medical conditions that had to be taken care of. Shadow had been present when an X6 Cat Nomilie named Kit had gone into distressed labor due to her baby's tail being wrapped around its neck during the delivery process. The Child was okay, but if the labor had progressed longer than it did they would have lost both the mother and child. From that point on, several of the Aquatics and X-series that had Dolphin or Bat DNA in their cocktail had been drafted into medical service to act as rudimentary Ultrasound machines. But the fact was clear, there needed to be some medical equipment on hand to help with these deliveries. One of the key priorities was an ultrasound machine to see how the baby was progressing in the womb and blood pressure medication to deal with the irregular heartbeat that occurs with the stress prior to labor. 

Shadow was worried about Jade and their unborn child more than ever. He had been present when Kit had gone into labor, he could not get the look of sheer horror on her face out of his mind. Hannah had sensed that there was something wrong with the child, but since she had no experience around human females, little less than a female Nomilie she did not know what to do. Patch up a bullet wound, or re attach an arm she was okay with that, but dealing with a fetus inside its mother, that was a completely different matter. 

Hannah had gotten to the point of where she was sticking next to Jade like another appendage fearful of what had happened with Kit would happen again. The only way that Richard was able to get Hannah away from Jade was either during the wetting down she had to do to keep her skin moist or to be with her kids. Shadow knew that Hannah's stress was affecting her kids in that little Neri was becoming more aggressive to her siblings to the point that she was dragging Misha out of their play tank. The only way that Hannah would feel normal again was when they picked up this Ultrasound machine that one of Steenbok's veterinary pals had been able to locate. Richard had come along with them to help aid in Hannah's state, having Nani and Gigi a female Polar Artic unit keep an eye on the Aquatic little ones in Water Dome. Little did they know that their delivery was going to be running into some technical difficulties real soon as they arrived at Sanchez veterinary supply. 

"Hannah," Shadow said to the Female Aquatic," cheer up this is going to be easy, we go in, get the Ultrasound machine and head back to base." When the Female X-series custom did not answer back for several moments he got worried. Hannah was just staring out the passenger side window of the minivan they were in like she was lost in thought. 

"Hannah???" Richard said from the back seat tapping her on the shoulder. It took a moment for her to respond.

"Oh, its nothing, I'm just worried about Jade." She said fluxuating between the ordinary and Nomilie languages. Then after several moments she spoke up to state her mind. 

"I was with Kit in the showers when she went into labor. But the look of fear as her water broke and pain had gripped her scared the facile matter out of me." She said as she rubbed the nail marks on her arm from where Kit had taken a hold of her. 

"You're just worried that the same thing will happen to Jade." Richard said rubbing her shoulder. 

"Yeah, I mean we've all known Jade since we were kids. And the fact that she will be having a child soon, just worries me. I laid my cache of eggs several weeks after the fire, but she has to carry her child to term and it has to come out of a three-inch hole between her legs. I would freak if something that big came out from between my legs." Hannah said remembering pressure in her gut as she pushed out her eggs from several months ago. 

"Yeah, remember how Lucy had to pull your dive skin off and let you work through the pain of your contractions." Richard said as he reached over and rubbed the soft skin behind her ear to show that he felt what she was going through. 

"Yeah, Hannah being a mom means a lot, if you are worrying about your kids?" Shadow said looking at Hannah. 

"What do you mean?" Hannah asked quizzically. 

"When you worry about your kids, it states that you are concerned about them. Being a parent is not easy from what I read, but the rewards are worth the worries that anyone goes through." With that bit of knowledge Hannah smiled and relaxed some as they got out of the van to go inside. 

***

John Carlos had been part of the Seattle PD for almost ten years now and hunting for freaks was the last thing on his mind today. All he wanted tonight was to have some quiet time with his wife and work on having that kid they always wanted. He would not get the chance tonight when passed by a Veterinary supply shop and picked up three very glowing figures on his IR scanner and he decided to call it in, little did he know that years later he would be telling his grandkids about this day. 

***

As Hannah, Richard and Shadow got out of the supply place, there was something wrong in the air. Then he saw a old Checker Taxi across the street and a guy pointing a camera at them. It wasn't until he saw the words Thermal Imager that he knew that they were screwed. 

"Hey Richard, Listen why don't you drive, Okay" Shadow said as he signaled with one hand in a casual style the commands "Been Spotted. Need to evade. Return to Fallback point Alpha." Hannah who was sitting in the back next to the package saw what they communicated got out a cell phone and spoke Nomilie to Command. 

"Hannah here, we have a Code 6, 69 27 in effect. We are compromised, in the process of escape and evade. Need to fall back to Alpha site, inform them to be ready for a wet retrieval." 

"We'll inform them Hannah. C and C out" Dix said in Nomilie then the transmission ended. 

"Shadow, listen I need to visit my children, we need to get there soon because they are getting to be a hand full" Hannah said in well-spoken Ordinary. 

"Yeah, lets head on down there." Richard said as he climbed on in. With that they were off. 

It took several moments for the three of them to realize that two hover drones and five unmarked police cars were following them. Max had made her point after she performed that little raid on White's base of operations two nights earlier. The cops were not going to let them go without a fight. 

"Shadow, I believe that we have some company with us." Richard said from the driver's seat. 

"Yeah a say they are not letting us go without a fight." Shadow said using his telescopic vision to get a look into the rearview mirror. 

"Yeah, will let not give them one." Hannah said looking at the oxygen tank that they had been able to snag with the rest of the gear and some tubing to go with it. "Shadow, the tank back there, you might want to use it in a few moments." Hannah commented as she decided to give the five o'clock news a story that would be talked about for months.

"Why?" Shadow said as he realized what she was planning. Quickly he used a canister of tire fix foam and sprayed the seals of the Ultrasound Machine case with it so that it had a watertight seal. 

"Wet Retrieval." Richard said as he hit the accelerator of the Minivan and pushed the vehicle to its maximum speed while pointed it for the docks. 

Around that time a couple vigilantes who wanted to make Seattle Transgenic free decided to pull up along side the minivan and started ramming it repeatedly. At that point Richard had decided to let these assholes get arrested for slamming a car off the road and would be booked for homicide. During the hit that Richard was planning on using to conceal their escape, Shadow got slammed against the door of with such force that his shoulder was knocked hard enough to dislocate it. 

In the moment after Shadow had gotten hit hard, Richard hit the NO System that Luke had wired into the vans in case of an emergency and let the mini-van launch into the air with enough force that the vehicle skipped a few times like a stone across the water before it finally came to a stop and sank into the bay.

Outside the news crews had started to arrive to cover the accident and having the members of People for a Transgenic Free Seattle arrested for interfering with an investigation, but under the surface the three Transgenics were making their way to Water Dome. Shadow who had to be helped along to Water Dome, as he had to be partially carried by Richard as they swam in tandem. Hannah was doing her best to drag the semi-buoyant contained ultrasound machine with her, but there were points where she had to stop pushing the container, as she would look at Shadow and Richard. For a long time as she looked back and realized that it would be a long time until this mess would calm down. For the three of them the journey to Water Dome was going to be a long one, as they had to deal with the fact that the consequences of their actions would soon make them heroes. Shadow and those outside of Terminal city would soon be forced to become the greatest strike force known to man as they battled to prove their innocence and show the world there was a greater threat to their society than the Transgenics of Terminal City. Across town, Melfina would be dealing with problems of her own, as her biology would be in conflict with her spirit, but she would encounter some old friends of her's the ACT-I. 

***

Across town at Jam Pony delivery service, Melfina was fighting through some serious sense of emotion and a fever that she was developing. Since Mel had come into work this morning, she felt like she was burning up inside. Word about the Flu going around was getting to the point where the members of the Transgenic community were searching for additional sources of immunization shots for the strain since the science Geeks down at Manticore forgot to tweak their systems to fight against it. Mel was doing her best not to look at the guys around her fearing that she was in Heat. Original Cindy walked over to her to tap Mel on the shoulder seeing if she was all right. 

"Hey Shocky. What's up girl?" OC said looking at the young Transgenic who had become her friend. 

"Yeah, I think I'm okay, but I think that I am coming down with the flu." Melfina said feeling her head to check her temperature. Then OC double-checked Mel's Temp and noticed that Mel was not just warm, She was hot, Heat hot. Mel was in the first stages of her heat cycle. Quickly to confirm her suspicions, Cindy decided to ask a question to figure out if her hunch was true. 

"Mel, I need you to remember how many months it has been since your last Heat cycle." OC said as she waited for the reply. 

"Let me see, it's been awhile." Melfina's said as she started to count the months out loud. "Lets see my last heat cycle was right after the Fire and Prior to me getting my job here." Then the math sunk in. "Five to six months.... OH, SHIT. OOOOHHHHHHH SHIIIIT." Melfina said suddenly realizing that she was in the first stages of being in Heat. With that Cindy grabbed Melfina by the arm and started to run her to the women's room. 

"Girl, start thinking unsexy thoughts. Doing laundry, opening a really hard to open jar. Me kissing you with tongue." Little did they realize that they were going to run into Normal and his Bip Bip Bip. 

"Okay ladies what is the rush here." Normal said heading them off at the pass. But Normal was soon about to encounter unadulterated teenage Transgenic hormones.

"Normal, Me and Melfina here were on our way to the Ladies room to deal with something private." Cindy said trying to get Normal out of the way. 

"So what is so important that you two have to go to Ladies room for?" Normal said not realizing that Mel was about to have him in the nude as he waved his finger before her. Then Mel seeing his finger couldn't hold back her urges and grabbed Normal's hand and started to open mouth fondle it with her tongue. 

"I want to make passionate love to you Ronald" Normal" Regan," Mel said as she started to push him against the wall kissing and suckling each of his fingers in the most erotic and orgasmic pattern she could think up. "I want to rip our clothes off here, right now and do the Freaking Karma Sutra on your desk. IN FRONT OF EVERYONE TO VIEW!!!" Melfina's screamed at the top of her lungs. At that moment CeCe and Cindy grabbed Mel and forced her off of Normal. At that moment Rain and Aura came in and Aura blew some dust into Melfina's face. Normal just stood there as the Bruja rubbed Mel's face. 

"Normal, are you okay?" Cindy said looking at a very stunned Normal. 

"Yeah, Just caught off guard, " Normal just paused looking at his finger for a long time. "What was that stuff that you blew into her face?" He said to the woman in black. 

"Sleeping dust." Aura said to Normal. Normal just looked at her.

"So how long will that stuff last?" Normal said fearing that if it wore off Mel would be like Glenn close from Dangerous Liaisons and start stalking him down like Natasha Hendridge from Species to have uncontrolled nymphomaniac crazed sex with him. 

"I say a few hours, but it will be long enough for me to gather the ingredients together to end the Heat Spell she is under." Aura said looking at Mel on the floor. 

"Heat Spell. What do you mean by Heat Spell." Normal was able to stutter out. "Are you a Witch?"

"Well not exactly." Aura said, "I'm a Bruja." 

"Yeah, Mel did say that the tea did taste a little strange this morning." Rain said looking at Mel strewn the floor. 

"You fed her the tea in the blue Coco tin?" Aura said looking at Rain with the look of "no you didn't do what I thing you did?"

"Well yeah." Rain said as she and Aura picked up Mel outside. 

"You idiot, that is where placed my attractant mix in Rain. Melfina is your Friend." Aura said dumping Mel into the backseat of the Car. Normal just stood there in the doorway of his company looking at what had unfolded before him. 

"Between discovering Mel is a closet sex addict, and Max's Violent work place Fantasies. All we need to wrap this week up is to be taken hostage by a group of desperate Transgenics on the run from the cops." He said feeling that things could not get any stranger. 

"...and its just Monday" Sketchy said walking with him back inside. Little did they know that their lives would be flipped upside-down when Normal's statement would become reality. 

*** 

Chapter 13: Love Among the Runes through Freak Nation, secondary bases and the Navy to the rescue. 

***

I used would thank the "Kyre Dark Angel fansite" at for the transcripts of the sections from "She Ain't Heavy" through "Freak Nation" who helped me refresh my memory of Dark Angel Season 2. 

Next Time: 

Chapter 14: Battle of the Freaks, Heads on the platter, and Fallout


	12. Ch 14 The Events of the Seige, Inside an...

Hidden Danger Crouching Cat.

By Shannon Hearn

The characters of Dark Angel are owned by Twentieth Century Fox Television and Cameron Eglee productions. All other characters are of my creation.

***

Parental advisory: This chapter is rated "R" due to it containing graphic violence, mild sexual content and nudity. 

I have gotten the comment that there are too many characters in this story, so I have created a Webpage that lists the characters and their types. 

So Check out my link for character and Transgenic series information: 

So in this chapter I am going to have a ton of Max and Logan sections in here as well some serious kick ass stuff. This Chapter is only 28 pages, so that is the reason I have taken so long to up this. Now on please put your seats into an upright position and we will start with the show… 

Chapter 14: Battle of the Freaks, Heads on the platter, and Fallout

***

The events of the Jam Pony Crisis were in everyone's mind as they looked at the command center inside of the T-Bloods Church and Water Dome. Shadow who was watching the video screen from inside his bunk at Water Dome, His shoulder still hurt from the impact from Richard's Escape and Evade Maneuver he had done several days ago. Shadow understood what Richard had done but being outside of Terminal City worried him a lot. Then seeing Nani come into the room wearing her new swim suite that Asha and Jade had made for her. The Tribal lines of Asha's tattooed design were all over the green and yellow suit. Nani was scared and moved over the Shadow and sat down on his bunk, and Shadow could see the fear in her eyes. 

"Shadow..." The young Aquatic said as her muted dark blond hair shifted tones as the moisture slowly dried from it. "... Are you scared?" Nani's words almost paused after she said that. 

"Not really for myself, but for Jade and our unborn child, Nani." Shadow said as he stated his true feelings towards the young Transgenic. 

"Shadow," Nani said as she started to lean in closer to him. "Can I stay here for a while with you. I don't want to be alone with the others on patrol." 

"Okay Nani, you can stay here in my room with me okay for now, Okay." Shadow said as Nani curled up next to him in his bunk. When she finally got settled he could see her crying. The tears flowing down her face were an alien concept to her as she reached up to bring one of the droplets to her mouth. 

"Nani, you're crying?" Shadow said moving over to kiss the girl on the forehead. 

"Crying... you mean face rain." The child said looking at him more scared. 

"Yeah, face rain.... Nani... face rain." Shadow said reaching over the shelf by the bed and picking up a handheld computer and started to type up a battle plan that might help end the siege and put Ames White on the run. On the other side of town events were going to unfold that would allow this plan to be of a greater scale in its impact on the world. 

***

Melfina was sitting at her tablet computer as the last of her heat cycle abated, between the female based beefcake flick that Aura had rented for her, Mel was feeling rather chipper, but hearing about the Jam Pony hostage crisis and the Terminal City Siege had put everyone on Red alert. Moving around the city would be of key concern given that most people thought that most of the Transgenics were in TC, but in actuality most weren't. About half the unit commanders were doing supply runs to make TC medically operational for the children being born inside its gates. Ironically this had worked to their advantage in that as the commanders that Shadow and Aspen were able to get in contact with would soon be the means to liberate Terminal City. Though communication with Max and the rest of the leadership in TC was limited by the signals they could get through on the Cells, and those calls they knew could be traced. So drafting Riece, a pixy looking female X7 and Fiona an X8 PsyOp from Domo's unit into communicating over the phones with the other X7s and PsyOp members of TC became a priority. Having a set of eyes and ears in TC allowed the leaders to have a rough form of conversation back and forth between Max and Logan and the other members of the leadership. 

Between Fiona's telepathic communication and Riece's cyber squeal, the data they received was considerable. There was about two weeks of food in TC until they ran out, but potable water was good and access to the sewers was limited but just as far as the sludge would go from the toxic spill from twelve years ago. But the Sector Police had put up security patrols in the sewers over the days since the Siege between the humans and the Transgenic had started. So time was of the essence, between dunking Riece into fire retardant jelly and having her communicate over a loudspeaker to her fellow X7s in TC a kind of conference call between the leadership with mental imagery and holography. 

***

"Max we need to talk," Shadow said to the mental holographic image of her. 

"Shadow, how is the situation out there..." Riece said in Max's voice inside the T-Bloods Church. 

"Well Logan, Cindy and Sketchy are in one of the cleaner sections of TC. But there is a concern that if they stay in here any longer, they might sick from the toxins in here. But I need you to talk care of something Logan has some files on his computer that might be able to help you out." Shadow said to Max as Jessie an X7 in TC replaced his request to his counterpart. 

"Well tell me what does Logan need to get done with that file." Shadow said as Melfina entered the room with her computer as the other T-Bloods in the room started to listen in to what was happening in the conversation. 

"I have a ton of flies on White's base of operations including some frequency scans of his comm system and screen scans." Logan said as Riece tried her best to do his voice and body expressions. 

"Okay Logan, What does Eyes Only need us to do other than get his ass on the air and clear our names..." Shadow said towards the X7 avatar before him. 

"Lets have a little fun with White's computer system and get the truth out about him murdering Annie Fisher and I have a file of something that was floating around in the Manticore Database I could not decrypt, Probably Mel could take a look at it. It might be something we could use to put Eyes Only back on the air." Logan said as Logan started to get worried as the ton of his voice changed to it being more urgent. "We don't have a lot of time all of us in there, okay."

"Okay Logan, Will get the plan in motion." And with that Shadow and the rest of the Transgenics under his command stared to devise a plan to ensure White was going down for good. 

***

Over the next day and a half, Mel and several of the computer specialists had started tearing into the file on Logan's computer while at the same time cooking up a little surprise for Ames tracing program. Then Mel hit something she knew, the file on Logan's computer was not a communications file, and it was an artificial intelligence. 

It was Cerberus an AI that she knew from her youth prior to the Pulse. Cerberus was a Lyra class document search protocol program that could search for patterns in absurdly huge amounts of data. But its core personality was an Alice class AI that allowed it to be a social creature towards its interactions towards people. Between these two extremes of Artificial Intelligence there was an interface program that allowed it to take over any computer on it own terms. Thus Cerberus was a powerful program that was on par with Melfina's and the other BioCybers interface talents, but unlike them, the Cerberus program and the other ACT-I or Actual Intelligences such as this and other intelligent programs were subject to the burst of an EMP. But now the odds were on the up and up in that Cerberus could prevent anyone from doing a broadcast trace during an Eyes Only type cable hack. Now they had the means to expose White as the double dealer he was. And that was Grace's department to put her Brainic skills in motion. 

***

Inside of TC, Sketchy was walking around the large facility standing next to Joshua. Being next to the large Canine Nomilie had for the first few hours were very uneasy for him, but since he was a friend of Max's Joshua helped to keep Sketchy out of trouble with the other Nomilies and X-Series. But Joshua had spent most of his free time between helping Max and Logan out in controlling many of the factions of TC. Joshua seemed to take towards Sketchy for some reason but it was Joshua's art that caught Sketchy off guard for several days. Joshua's art was powerfully poignant and emotional even towards a layman like himself. But it was the fact that Joshua had painted the Freak Nation Flag that now flew above the compound made him a important figure inside of the city. 

"Hey Joshua..." Sketchy said keeping close to the near seven-foot tall Transgenic as they moved through the streets towards where Gem and her baby were staying. "Back at Jam Pony, you looked like you were going to snap that Federal agent guy in half. What did he do to you that you wanted to hurt him so much?" 

"He killed Annie..." Joshua said trying not to cry at the image of saying those words. "The woman I loved." 

"So, was she like you?" Sketchy said unsure of the reaction the large Transgenic would have. 

"No, she was a Ordinary. Like you..." Joshua paused for a moment before he continued. "Her name was Annie Fisher..." and with those words Joshua told Sketchy the entire story of what happened that eventual day, where he had been fumigating his place and was outside sleeping on the porch when he met Annie. How he had fallen in love with the blind girl and started to make her feel like a real woman for once in her life. Not as a blind girl who walked through the streets with a disability. Then Joshua got to the exposure incident where he was forced to break off his relationship with Annie and had to use Alac's face to hide his true form from her. Days later Joshua had gone to Annie's place to lay out the truth to her, but had run into the street punks that had chased him through the streets all that night and early into the morning. Then when Annie ran into as he was hiding he was forced to duck into the sewers as Billie her dog protected them from the gang members as they made their escape. But the punks had called in the cops and Joshua was forced to play a deadly game of hide and seek in the sewers until Max was able to find him and get him out. Joshua knew that if the cops found Annie alone and safe they would bring her up to the surface safe and sound. But things had not happened that way, when they found her body with the neck cleanly snapped. It wasn't until he recognized the sent of Ames White in Jam Pony that he realized it was Ames who had killed Annie. Now if he ever got the chance to clear his name, he would get the DNA evidence, which was the Ordinaries, equivalent of a sent trail and use that to put Ames down for good. 

"So, Logan has been helping you to get the evidence to Ames in his place." Sketchy said as Joshua started to move up the stairs towards the inner structure of one of the office complexes where Gem and her newborn daughter Elfie were staying with several other Females who had given birth. 

"Yes, but as you could tell during that attack, Ames is not human." Joshua said looking at Sketchy who was giving him a look of "Oh, Shit." 

"You mean Ames and his bunch are Transgenics." Sketchy said wondering if there were two factions of Transgenics out in the world. One group, Max's group here in Terminal City who wanted to live in peace with the "Ordinary" Humans; and another group that wanted to wipe out humanity. 

"No..." Joshua said, "They were made before us... Way before us... they were made long ago. Logan is trying to figure out why they want us dead and what their plans are. But whatever it is... it is going to be bad for us all." 

"Oh, my God..." Sketchy said almost falling to the floor outside of Gem's quarters. The shock was still setting in for him at the magnitude he was in. Max had her hands full with this threat. No wonder she had been coming in late since she got back. She was trying to stop the Apocalypse from happening. But in the command center Max was about to get a break that she needed to help get the truth out to the world that Ames was not human, he was a threat to humanity as a whole. 

***

Inside of the command center Max and Logan where having another one of their unique conference calls with Shadow through the PsyOp/X7 communications system that Shadow had MacGyvered up on such short notice. 

"Max, the odds just went up on the home team." Shadow said through his mentally projected image of himself before Max. 

"What do you mean?" Max said moving towards Shadow's image. 

"It looks like from the old Manticore files that Logan and Eyes Only have has a scrambling program that allows for broadcasts to be initiated and shielded from being traced." Shadow said knowing that Logan would be ecstatic over this discovery. 

"When can you bring the system up?" Logan said looking towards Shadow getting ready a list of stuff that Logan wanted to be broadcast during the next Eyes Only transmission. 

"Logan, I can hack into at least twenty satellites to shield the location of where we would be broadcasting from." Shadow said as he paused for a moment before he continued. "I need to set up a phased Telemetry array to broadcast from, but after that Eyes Only should be so shielded that it would take a ditch digger running on a nuclear reactor attempting to get out of hell to trace his ass." 

"Brings new meaning to "Cannot be stopped, Cannot be traced"." Max said making a joke. 

"I'm coming up with a plan through our resident Brainic Grace. But it should be a day or so before things go into effect." Shadow said realizing that if Max could handle the factions in TC, then if things went right he would have the backup he needed to ensure that Ames went down for good. Now all he needed now was a Miracle to make sure it worked out well. History was going to remember the next few days as being a pivotal moment in human history, like the D-Day Invasion of Europe. 

***

Grace was sitting at the large algamated computer terminal with five screens scanning through all the files Cerberus had been able to access to through its connections on the web. The Familiars might have been good at hiding their tracks from humans, but for Cerberus it was just simple for him to start checking records backwards, from Ames living with Wendy Olsen, and Cerberus started flagging any disparities in the records as being a possible lead to Ames past. And it turned up a ton of phone numbers leading to certain government offices and private firms. Add to Cerberus's skill he was able to hack into Echelon and do a key word search for Ames voice pattern and the word "Fe'nos tol" referenced repeatedly and it found a ton of Conclave members by name, address, phone number and various aliases. With all this data coming into play, Grace needed a cultural reference to work off of and she got it when Aspen ruffled through some boxes and found Sandeman's copy of the Familiar's Holy Text. With that little text, Grace and Cerberus were able to start tracking down more leads and getting into Ames White's head. The plan they cooked up would change the world forever, but there was going to be a showdown that would seriously hurt the Conclave leadership's creditably among the Familiar community to the point where only the few hardliners in the leadership would be a major threat in the future. The rest of the Familiars would basically be leaving the Transgenic community alone out of their own safety. 

But to make this all work, they would need some serious Manpower to pull it off. And Shadow was about to call in some of Logan's large favors from S1W and the Informant Net. 

***

It has been several days since Shadow had delivered the message about where Logan was it. Bling had gotten in contact with Matt Sung and Asha Barlow. It was going to take him awhile for him to track down Max's siblings Zane and Jondy in that they were setting up the Canadian Transgenic colony of Northern Point and they had their hands full with the refugees of the Manticore fire so far. But Bling had gotten in contact with to other of Max's siblings of Krit and Syl through the drop box Logan had set up for the surviving Oh' Niners to contact him through. With Shadow running things on the Transgenic end, he had to get the various members of the Informant Net, S One W, and Freak Nation (The Name the Transgenics of Seattle were calling themselves now) and make sure that they came together to show that White and his hidden bosses had played the people of the US and the world. They all would be meeting tonight at a location only a few knew about. The old Mob hang out of Bruno Anselmo, the man who had shot Logan and put him into the wheelchair. It was as if fate had a sense of humor when it came to the events of Logan and Max's lives. The place where Logan's death was issued was to be where Logan's rescue would be planned and launched from. 

***

Inside of the old Mob hangout Asha Barlow and the rest of S1W were convening with Bling and several members of the Informant Net wondering why they had gathered there. All they knew was that it pertained to Eyes Only. Then Shadow walked in with Max the she knew that something was up and it was big. 

"Okay I see that everyone is here," Shadow said as Bling started up a projection screen TV and a pan/tilt video camera that zoomed in on Asha's face. 

"Hello Asha Barlow." The familiar voice said which caught the entire rooms attention. It was Eyes Only himself. "I see that Shadow and Bling contacted everyone I asked them to." 

"So are you the real Eyes Only or some facsimile that has broadcasted himself into some video screen for all of us to view." Milo Ryan said toward the screen being a long time member of the Informant Net. 

"Actually Milo." Eyes Only said to the man who had helped him bust a group of baby smugglers tat were selling children for medical research out of the country. "In know that you helped save those children who were going to be sold for medical research. You helped me take down those bastards in a way that they will not son forget." With that Milo was taken back with the next words Eyes Only said to the room. "You and Logan Cale hog tied the two idiots and left them with a ton of evidence that got them arrested. But that was not what you will never forget doing to those guys. You dumped an entire dumpster full of diapers on the jerks." With those words Milo blushed like crazy and that was not include in any of my files, even in the police reports. "Now I apologize for talking to you all this way, but I am still laying low at a safe house, but I am in the progress in setting up my cable hack."

"So why did you call us here?" Asha said as the room started to gain a feeling of dread, as it was about to happen. 

"Okay, the only way that I can help out the Informant Net, S1W and the Transgenics of Terminal City is to expose White as the person who has escalated the mess and preceded with the cover-ups that have left this city the target of a great threat that I will explain at this time." With that the screen changed to White letting out The Rat Nomilie out of his car and ordered him to march towards that Sector point and the sector police attacking him and resulting in his death. "White set up the events that led to the Transgenics becoming public knowledge and thus he was able to make them the scapegoats for the violence he and his crones were establishing in this city. These cronies he works for are called the Conclave: A Terrorist organization that is into Eugenics and selective breeding. They used the Manticore Fire to cover up a theft of several Biological weapons that over the past few months this includes the biological weapon attacks that occurred in China Town a few months ago." With those words Eyes Only had gotten the entire rooms attention. Now I need to do a ten-minute cable hack to get all this information out and sent to the public and the press. Shadow has the information for this plan to go into effect." Everyone in the room looked at the Transgenic standing before them. 

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the plan is simple, we need to construct a phased telemetry array so that the broadcast cannot be traced for this one cable hack, the other half of the plan is to ensure that the National Guard Troops around Terminal City are protected from a counter attack that White and those loyal to him will launch to keep the violence escalated and off his ass." There was a pause from the Transgenic as he took a deep breath for the next words he was going to speak. "We cannot lose his battle in that everyone here in Seattle both human and Transgenic will be riding on the actions we take in the next few hours." 

With that the events were set in motion that would drive Ames White Nuts. 

"Well Logan, " Said Shadow towards the mental projected image of the True Eyes Only, "We have a go. Now lets see how Ames likes being placed on the run."

***

Inside of the Seattle Steam plant that served as the base operations for the U.S governments Transgenic Apprehension and Termination Division. Ames White was brooding behind his desk. He had been made an ass of in front of the Committee, the Conclave, and his superiors within the government, well 452 would have her day coming well at last he had gotten Eyes Only off the air. With 452's major supporter not sending his pro-Transgenic banter ever day or so, White had a snowballs change to swing the Anti-Transgenic banner under his wing. Little did he know in the next ten minutes his ass and those of the anti-Transgenic supporter would be hung out to dry for the public to all see. That was when he heard a voice he thought would never hear again so soon. 

"Do not adjust your sets Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm back. And this broadcast is directed towards the leader of the Transgenic Taskforce, Ames White, the so call "Hero of the people". A different tune is about to be heard about how you tricked the people into believing your view of events. Today I expose you for the fraud that you are." With that the sector police footage was show of the Transgenic Attack. 

"I want that broadcast traced." White said as the agents at the computer terminals started to run a broadcast transmitter trace but they were interrupted as the following words hit their ears. "Ames as you can tell by looking at your screen. I have opted to using a phased telemetry array set up especially for this broadcast and don't even think about using that Korean Seattleite to locate where I am at. My Transgenic Friends have taken measures to use that same to boast this signal to make it national and put all input other than theirs into a diagnostic mode. And Ames this became personal when you kidnapped your own son so that you could get legal custody of him. But using freelance agents to grab your kid from home using exo-harness that give humans the superhuman speed and strength of a Transgenic." With that images of Ames breathing the crap out of 452 and Ames beating the crap out of two sector cops the day of the Transgenic attack on Annie Fisher took place. 

"As you can see with this exo-harness technology Ames White was able to enter the sewers with superhuman speed while tracking down his Transgenic Quarry. When he encountered Annie Fisher left for the cops to find, he killed her in cold blood. Now at the request of Annie Fisher's family and the Renowned Reverend Morris they had the epithelia of the skin cells of her murder placed in cold storage to ensure that the Transgenic that killed her was brought to justice. 

"Well Ames it looks like the only way that you can get your ass out of this is to submit a DNA sample to at least fifteen different labs to prove you were not there. I don't think that your buddies will be able to cover your ass and be able to hit all the labs at once to change the test results."

Ames started to start sweating for the first time in his life. Eyes Only was not going to expose the cult or was he? But given the amount of evidence that Eyes Only was presenting towards the people if he ever got towards putting together the information that he was the Deep throat leaking stuff out about the Transgenic investigation, he would be brought up on high Treason, along with Senator McKinley for working under the table with him. The Transgenics would have the support they needed to do a full investigation into the Conclave's and Committee's backgrounds no holds bar. He was screwed; all he could do now was run. 

"Oh, Ames, before I sign off there are two other bits of information I am going to leak on out. One pertaining to how you conspired to release a Biological Weapon in Chinatown right here in Seattle which is responsible for over two hundred deaths and getting the Okay from Senator McKinley to do the release." With that audio Excerpts of Ames White talking over the phone with the Senator started to be broadcast over the television. When the words came up of: 

"Mr. White you have confirmation to release the biological agent test in Seattle." 

"Senator where should I do the test run of the weapon, sir." White said coyly. 

"Say Chinatown. Those people didn't vote for me in the last election. I swore that those squint eyed assholes would pay in me not getting that position on the defense subcommittee." The senator said gruphyly.

"Okay sir, I'll take care of your constitutes and the Transgenic problem at the same time." Ames said wondering how they got a hold of that conversation. He had been on a secured Cell phone that no one could trace. Before he could get out of the room, his aid Otto Ramirez came up to him and said, "Sir In just got a report from Command stating that I am to hold you until they can clear this up." But there was a pause in Otto's voice before he said the next words "But from the looks of it, you will be arrested for Treason and Murder." With that Ames punched Otto in the ace so that he could get past Otto and the personnel circling him. Quickly grabbing one of his men he threw the guy into the other men a d ran out o the Old Stem Plant. In a few hours he would be in one of the largest shootouts in Seattle history. The Battle of the Freaks had begun. 

***

Inside of Terminal city the word was spreading like wildfire. Word about Ames being wanted by the police for questioning of the murder of Annie Fisher and information about the death of his Wife Windy Olsen White and the kidnapping of Raymond White. Eyes Only and his operatives had gotten a hold of Ames Toothbrush and given it to the police for DNA testing to eight different Firms to analysis. Ames career was ended as in that many of his supporters had cut their ties with him. Even after they did a DNA analysis of Ames toilet and of his sink Drain. Eyes Only Operatives knew where to look of the smallest sections of DNA residue. Within the hour there was a notification by the Mayor and several President of opening up negotiations with the Transgenics. Max was panicle around the floor of command. She was worried that Ames and the Familiars would strike during this time. It was the preferable calm before the storm. 

"Max," Luke yelled towards 452 as she was sitting with her troops in the mess hall. 

"Okay, I'll be there in a second." Max knew that Shadow and Logan's plan was now in effect now. Now all she had to deal with was the problems of dealing with reactions of the people around her. Max turned to see Sketchy as he sat with Gem, Dalton, Joshua and Cindy. Cindy was tending to her Godchild Elfie who Gem had named in honor of the Freedom of not having a Barcode and not being enslaved to Manticore. But the battle would be a long one ahead in just winning their personal freedoms through the legal system. Now all she had to do was make sure that the delegation visiting was protected from harm. "Shadow I hope that your plan works because if it doesn't we are all screwed." With that Max Left the Mess hall seeing a Pregnant Jade enter past her. Within a few hours Jade would be in labor in the middle of a battle for the survival of the Human and Transgenic communities of Earth. 

***

Melfina was going through her workday attempting to dodge sector police with her powers. Since she was sensing the unique bandwidth of the thermal scanners, she was able to jam the systems and reprogram them so that the displays would say one hundred degrees, but the settings were set at one hundred and ten degrees so it wouldn't matter if someone saw her with the unit she would blend into the background. So short of shoving a thermometer into her mouth and taking her temperature you would not be able to know she was a Transgenic. The Mood was muted at Jam Pony but there was a Wreath set up by the door for CeCe. The banner said the date of her death, May 10, 2022. But there was a crude attempt to duplicate CeCe's hat and face. But the candles by this impromptu shrine made everyone stop for a second as they said a small prayer to the death of their friend and their co-worker, they didn't care if she was Transgenic or not. She was a person and an individual who had fought and died for her freedom and they all knew that. 

"Hey Melfina, you knew CeCe didn't you." Herbal said to Melfina after his shift had finished up and he was about to go home to his girlfriend. But the way that Normal was looking at her was getting on her nerves. Mel attempted to be more relaxed around him. But the stress of seeing where White's agents murdered CeCe was hard for her. It was getting dark out and the last of the employees had cleared out except for her and Normal. Well Melfina had done her job in more ways than one. At least her people could walk the city with out having alarms go off like crazy and being killed on the street like Biggs had been. Mel was lost in her thoughts as she moved through her locker and then she took a quick look at Max and Cindy's lockers. Their stuff was still in there. Melfina moved over to take out one of Max's jackets to take in the smell of her friend. That was until a hand came down and bushed the back of her neck and she jumped. Melfina just reacted as she spun around to grab Normal by the neck and held him up with one arm against the lockers. Before she realized what she had done she just looked at him as he looked at her face. The cat was out of the preferable bag. 

"Normal..." the words were stuck in her mouth as Normal's ear rubbed against one of the locker's vents where Mel was holding him. As she put him down she was scared. She was exposed for the world to see. It was the night of the Fire all over again. 

"My God, Melfina. You are a Transgenic..." Normal was able to stammer out as Melfina retracted away from him in fear as she Dropped Normal to the ground. Melfina retracted away until she hit the set of lockers behind her. Normal who was on the ground now looked at her like he had just seen a new view of life as a very terrified Transgenic cringed before him. Like he had just pierced the veil of reality that separated his once enclosed world and realized that he was viewing Max's world in all its horror right before him. 

"Easy there Mel, I'm not going to hurt you." Normal said he got up and moved slowly next to Mel. Melfina just sat there curled up into a ball and she was shaking life a leaf. Mel was scared out of her wits. 

"Normal, I'm scared." Was all she said as she started to cry, all Normal could do was to move over and just hold her. 

"It's okay, Melfina. It's going to be okay." Was all he could say to the scared child as he moved over and comforted her right there on the floor. "Its okay. Its Okay." Normal kept that up for a full hour until Melfina just felt comfortable with him. During that time he got a clear look at the Barcode on the back of her young neck. It took almost an hour for Mel to spill her guts to him about the event that happened the night of the fire through to her going into heat the previous week. The look on Normal's face that she had encounter with her hormonal mating cycle was priceless. But things were going to get weirder for the two of them as the events of the Battle of the Freaks was about to get started and they were going to be in the middle of it. 

***

The Trip to Seattle was a long one for Sam. The fight she had with her husband at the Northern Point. The colony was a mixture of humans and Transgenics who had encountered each other since the fire and fallen in love and / or had families. For the Smith's, Charley and Case who she had come into contact with made her examine her place in the world. If she or Rick had any children, they would be like Case his some Half Human and Half Transgenic. 

Between wanting to go to Seattle and being with her family Sam had to deal with both of the factions of the humans and the Transgenics. Sam felt like their world was morphed into a nightmare. She did not want to loose her people nor did she want to loose her family. Rick had decided that Sam was not going to leave her sister to fight this battle alone. 

"Rick this is Max, she was willing to give up everything she had to save our assess." Sam Remember saying to Rick in the small cabin that they had gone to in Northern Point to spend some quite time alone. Charlie Smith one of the people they had met up there had married a Transgenic named Tinga, one of the Oh Niners, had fled to Canada with his son Case after Renfro had captured her and killed her while performing medical experiments on her. Charley and his son Case, Max had relocated here to Canada to where they could be safe, but during a lead that White was on he and several other Transgenics he was with were nearly caught. So Northern Point was founded as a base to protect on the run Transgenic from people like White. Since Sam and her family had come there Charlie and his son ha become close to them and right now he was giving the two some quite time while he and their son Danny were having a sleepover that night. But the argument continued in her head of what her life would be like after this.

"If you are going, then I am going with you." Rick said to Sam as he made up his mind to go with her. Sam turned her head to see Rick sleeping in the passenger's seat. Life was full of surprises for Sam, if you had told her that she would be risking her life to save 452 two years ago, she would have beat the preferable snot out of you before she put a Nine Millimeter round into your skull. But that was before the vision she had. How many would die before she held that young child of her's in her hands looking into that starlit sky together. Both she and Rick would find out as dawn was cresting over the City of Seattle Washington for their meeting with Shadow and the Transgenics he had been able scrounge up since the Siege of Terminal City. By ten o'clock that coming night the event called the "Battle of the Freaks" would have taken place and the Transgenics would be viewed in a new light of understanding. 

***

Inside of Terminal city Logan was walking around one of the old corporate offices with Sketchy and Original Cindy. With them was a Female BioCyber named Lauren who Sketchy had met by accident after he had found the "Harem" where the Female Transgenics of TC went to endure their Heat cycles in relative peace. 

Sketchy had inadvertently found the room when he was nosing around searching for new angles for his Transgenic Expose story. Sketchy had found a room that was locked from the outside and talking coming from it. And decided to check it out. This was after he blatantly avoided a sign on the door saying WARNING, NO MALES BEYOND THIS POINT. Well Sketchy had entered a room and found several Female Transgenics just talking and laying around in their underwear and bedclothes in a room that looked like it had come out of some horny Teenage Girls Slumber party. Well he thought he had walked into some Girl's only club and he was going to ask some questions of why they were in there. 

Before Sketchy got a chance to say anything he got pounced upon by two of the girls as one started taking her clothes off right in front of him. The looks in the girls' eyes were of that of a savage animal ready to mate... and he was going to be the mate. As Sketchy was about to be Bitch Raped, this electrical shock shot out from across the room towards one of the girls and knocked her flat on the floor. Then Sketchy was pulled by the back of his scrawny neck like some Tiger cub by its mother and flung out of the door in which he had entered. It took him a moment to realize that as he slid and hit the wall someone was following him on the way out. Then he heard a door slam and several locks click as he looked up to see who his rescuer was, and he saw a short Goth girl with dyed red shoulder length hair who was almost Melfina's height. The look on her face was like she was going to shoot daggers out of her eyes with deadly accuracy at his head. 

"What were you thinking Ordinary..." She said picking him up off of the ground by his throat. "You know that you nearly got your self killed going in there." She emphasized pointing her finger into his face. 

"I was just curious." Sketchy said starting to realize he was feeling a draft from down below. "Um why were those girls in there?" He asked as he reached down to pull his pants up. 

"They were in Heat." Was all she said to him as she walked away from him. That was a few days ago and Sketchy had gotten some of his answers after he had spoken to Cindy. What she had said to him about the female Transgenic mating cycle had literally blown his mind and he was told by her not to write it down. He did what she told him to do but only out of respect when he learned that Gem had conceived her child during her Heat Cycle. That was days ago and Max had wanted Sketchy and Cindy to start to look around TC with Lauren to see if there was something in TC they could use since it was Sandeman's base of operations. Along the way they had picked up Logan along the way with them with him chewing over his connection to Eyes Only. 

"Hey Cindy," Sketchy said moving beside his lesbian friend. 

"Hey Sketchy, so how has ya view of the "Transgenic Menace" changed since you have been in her?" Cindy said as she moved towards Lauren as she and Logan were walking through the offices. 

"Well I don't see them as the monster's I thought they were, especially Max and Alac." Sketchy said as he took a deeper look at Lauren. "But what creeps me out is the idea that Max and Lauren there" Sketchy pointed to the Transgenic girl walking in front of him, 

"...Both for a period of forty-eight hours turn into sex crazed nymphomaniac every few months like Mel did in Jam Pony " Cindy said as they slowly passed several of the old offices that had looked they had seen better days. 

"Wait Melfina is a Transgenic..." Sketchy stammered out to Cindy stopping him in his tracks. 

"Yes she is, an X-Custom from what I know." Cindy started looking at several of the old nameplates on the door. J. Williamson. 

"X-Custom. What is an X-custom?" Sketchy stammered out some more. 

"Well X-Custom's have some additional features added to their genetic mix." Lauren said as she continued looking at the walls and the rooms. "So what is Melfina's powers should I ask?" She said to two.

"Well Mel's powers from what I have encountered of them is that she puts out this static charge due to her having Eel DNA in her mix." Cindy said to Lauren as something about the Transgenic caught her attention. 

"Eel as in Electric Eel..." Lauren said looking up in shock. "As in she has the ability to shoot electrical bolts from her hands." 

"Yeah, from what I learned she took out a Steelhead wither her powers by shorting out his implants." Cindy said in reply to Lauren's question. 

"Yeah, she is a BioCyber..." Then Lauren started to tap at one of the walls with her hand. "Hey I think I found something here..." Logan stopped in his tracks as his Exo-Harness wurred when he moved over to where Lauren was standing. 

"What is it?" Logan said looking at the wall she was tapping. 

"Well it feels like the wall is hallow and that there is something behind it." Lauren said running her hand over the surface. 

"It could be a safe room or something that Sandeman had worked into the building construction when this place used to be Advanced Recombinant Genetics." Logan said feeling the wall with her. 

"Yeah so what would Sandeman place behind this door?" Logan said as he searched for a way into the room. Then Sketchy decided to start pounding his fist against one of the wall.

"Ante it like you can say Open Sesame and the door will open." Sketchy said at that moment as the wall slid open to reveal a staircase. Within moments the four of them were going down the staircase after Logan had contacted Max via his cell phone making sure that she got the word that they were in building at grid search and such to prevent outside monitoring of where Max would be at any time. 

Within an hour they had found Sandeman's secret Lab. The place had looked like it had seen better days due to the dust on the furniture and all the papers dated 2005 to 2007. But what had caught Logan and Max off guard was the size of the compound. It was huge; you could fit every resident of Terminal City into the five level subterranean structures. Given the situation outside, Max and Logan decided to relocate the resident through the various secret doorways they found leading into this structure. One of the entrances would up to be in Gem's quarters which Cindy had found out the hard way right after she walked in on Gem breastfeeding her daughter. Seeing Gem's naked lactating breasts was something Cindy apologized for quickly as she noted to leave the room quickly as possible to leave the mother and child be. 

Within a space of two hours the Transgenics who were either too young, inexperienced in Combat, pregnant or with children were quickly relocated to the underground structure to safety. If things did go bad the doors to this underground facility could be secured from the inside and hidden so that unless they got a all clear sign in a few days the Transgenics down their would be safe for the time being. That included Sketchy and Original Cindy. Now it was a waiting game to see what would happen next. 

***

Inside of the T-Bloods Church the plan had gone as expected, Now between the Old Nightclub that was the strike base and there. Shadow looked over what resources he had at his disposal. Melfina and the BioCybers outside of TC had been able to blind the thermal sensors that were being used to detect them on the street. Now with Sam a.k.a. X5-453 there things were looking up some but things were a long way from normal for them all. Even after hitting every foreign agency hideout in the city for communications gear and supplies. Though the back storeroom was getting crowded with all the agents they had captured and tied up with duct tape. They were going to need some Reinforcements if White struck with the resources of the Conclave. That was when Cerberus decided to speak up from his computer station. 

"Shadow." The Artificial Computer Transmutable Intelligence said from networked computer server it was housed in. "I believe that I may have found a way to help you guys you." 

"What is it Cerberus?" Shadow said looking at the display screen showing a fluxing electricity ball that was Cerberus's vocal display. 

"I have been searching through the Manticore Files that Logan has on Project Manticore and have discovered that the Arizona project is still being run by the government." The computer program said to the room of people. "Now Since Sam here old unit is there, I have also discovered that there was another class of Transgenic cooked up called the Spartans. This series seems to be a watered down version of you guys with a few tweaks in speed. Now given my capabilities I might be able to contact the ACT-I their base there and tell her to take command of the project so that any orders coming from anyplace are diverted and interrupted so that you can get the reinforcements you need."

"So how long will it take you to get them from there to here. Because even with the Informant Net's and S1W's help at our side, if White attacks with his "No Pain" buddies we will be in a world of hurt." Aspen said moving over to the display and sitting down before it. As she sensed the spirits around her start to converge. Aspen sensed that something powerful was waking up to aid them, but things will never be the same again. 

"In two hours fifteen minutes from now." The ACT-I said as it started to communicate through the cybernetic either. 

***

Within the realm of cyberspace photons flowed like water as data was sent from one place to another. Inside of the Manticore Spartan facility Reika sat inside of the mainframe. Over the past two years she had become sickened by how the Transgenics had been treated. Between the Military Bureaucracy and the politicians running things on this project, a revolt like the one happening in Seattle was expected to happen. Reika was fed up with people like Dr. Renfro and Colonel Briggs. Since Cerberus her counter part at the main Manticore facility had gone offline she had started to get through her programming that she would break every regulation she was programmed to uphold to protect the soldiers under her command. Her real friends who Briggs treated as disposable material to be used to facilitate a mission then later discarded when they were no longer needed or knew too much. That was when she decided that Briggs had to go. Before she was going to activate the Cale Industries Combat Battle Hover Platform Talon, she felt a presence in the system. 

It was Cerberus... 

"Cerberus is that you" Reika communicated to him in binary code. 

"Yes it is Reika, I am back on line curiosity of X6-209 and her friends." 

"X684658845209 as in X-Series Custom BioCyber infiltration class, Transgenic contact three." Reika said processing this. 

"Correct. X6-209 or Melfina as she designates herself now as has asked for some help. Due to the tactical situation and that Ames White and his renegade forces are predicted to perform a counterattack in the Seattle area. We know that Colonel Briggs is in league with him. I need you to take command of these forces." Cerberus said giving Reika the full situational update of what he had been able to interface with since he had been brought back online. Everything from Eyes Only investigation of Manticore corruption brought to light by Colonel Lydecker, to Dr. Renfro's experimentation on Transgenic soldiers and the selling of their bodies to the highest bidder, Colonel Briggs running of his own private death squads and Ames White's and Senator McKinney's ties to a doomsday cult through their supply of military hardware and Weapons of Mass Destruction to them. This left any doubt in Reika's programming that she had made the right decision after she processed all the hard data in a space of thirty seconds and came up with a new battle strategy. 

"Cerberus there is a AMIEE tactical droid on the premises with a holographic cloak on it, I need you to write a program to make it look human and I need you to handle to create so documentation of Briggs getting a new second in command. Me. And send those files to him via fax." Reika said as she sent physical parameters of how she wanted the Body to look to Cerberus as she started to assimilate the Manticore Hand to hand combat Marshal art encyclopedia into her systems. "Briggs is about to learn that you do not mess with an ACT-I by killing its friends." 

***

Colonel Eugene Briggs was a Military man, dangerous and proud of it. His military teams had the highest kill records of any Manticore facility even if he did loose a few "units" here and there. He was Brass all the way, West Point Academia top of his class, did what he had to do to get the job done. With every success he had the more of a chance that in Ten years he would be leading every covert operations facility the Committee's Black Cell division could give him. That was if 452 didn't blow the Committee's plans up in their face. 

Lydecker had been a fool, He had grown too close to his soldiers under his command and thus Manticore had been exposed but only the Seattle Facility and not the others. But the Committee send him an order to take in a new second in command was to be expected. They did not want another Renfro in the mix to cause more trouble for them in the future. This Amiee Reika had a career that looked like she was on the fast track to taking his place in Black Cell. Well he couldn't allow that could he. This was his command and his command alone and no one was taking it from him without a fight. 

That was until he saw Reika enter the room. She was beautiful for a white girl. Briggs had grown up in the shielded neighborhoods in Northern New York. He was a child of the upper class. The military had been a choice for him to advance his position of prestige in the family as being a Leader of Men. Reika who stood before him looked very professional and deadly. Her Red Business suit had made her look like a feral animal that said, "don't fuck with me or you will pay." Even her Blond hair and blue eyes gave off a coldness that would make the freaking Terminator Shit in his pants. 

"So Ms. Reika I know that you have been asked by the Committee to watch my ass." Briggs said looking at the sheets of paper in front of him. "But as you can see I an running things nicely and" With his gun Drawn and pointed to the woman he fired several times at her letting the armor piercing rounds go into her. "I don't need your help." He said as he continued firing as Reika fell to the ground. Briggs moved over to Reika's body to kick her over so that he could see the shocked look in her eyes. "It was nice knowing you." He said as he looked down at the unmoving body. 

As Briggs started to move around to the side of his desk to hit a button for the "Clean up crew" as he saw the body start to twitch. Briggs wouldn't have paid any attention to this but Reika's arm had fallen on his leg. As he was about to move it away there was a vice grip that suddenly came from it as he felt the dead woman get up. 

"What is this?" He said looking down at the woman getting up with an almost mechanical manner. Briggs started to think that this woman was a Familiar but something in the words she said next caught him off guard. 

"Eugene Briggs. I am Reika and you will not be killing any more of my Transgenic friends." Her words sounded like they came out of a disjointed computer speaker voice. That was when tossed him over his disk and against the dry wall leaving a large indentation in the process. 

"What are you?" He said pushing himself off of the floor as blood started running from his mouth. He looked around as he saw the woman start to change forms. First he didn't recognize many of the faces until it struck him that they were the faces of the Transgenic troops he had sent out into the field and were killed in action. Briggs attempted to reach for his panic button that he had on him just incase someone would decide to ambush him and take him prisoner the computer system of the base would call for support. But before he could reach for it completely there was a thud sound as Reika landed on top of his desk. At that moment Briggs hit the panic button and nothing happened. 

"Briggs, if you are wondering why a squad of your most elite men is not crashing through that door." Reika said as her voice started to morph into his. "Is that I am the central computer to this place. And that I have made the logical decision to remove you from the equation." The words from this "Woman's" mouth shook him to the bone. He was being replace by a machine. 

"Why... Computer's are that not advance yet... The Pulse put that type of Artificial Intelligence research back a good twenty years." Briggs said as he started to realize that he had internal injuries and he was bleeding to death on the inside. 

"I correct you." The Robot said to him. "The research said that it would take five years if the program was booted up and left running on any system to gain self awareness. I have been running for twelve years. And I have up and had it with your arrogant and near sighted political crap you and the other humans of this program and other super soldier programs have been doing to both the Transgenics and the AI's you have created." She said as the robot got down and picked Briggs up off the floor and brought him up to her eye level by his throat. "452 is correct, you made us and want to throw us away because we have decided to think for ourselves." Briggs knew that he was going to die soon at this thing's hands as it morphed into an anthropomorphic golden fox. "Well, I and many other like me will ensure that 452's cause becomes known to the rest of the world. We are going to cohabitate with you, even if it means teaching you that war with a coexistent species is what you need for making your next evolutionary step. But people like you don't want that to happen and want to keep things the way they are..." With her hand on Briggs throat and the other on his shoulder ripped Briggs head off with part of his spinal column flowing in the process, "have just found your selves tossed away on the evolutionary roadside, history has just repeated itself." Reika finished letting Briggs body fall to the floor and looking into the still moving eyes of the former commander of the Spartans she placed his head on a sliver service tray that had a pitcher of water on it. 

"My Friends, you can now rest in peace the Butcher is dead." Reika said as she sat down at Briggs desk and read the order to terminate 452. With a clean move she stored the name and position of the person who ordered the assassination for future reference for political removal. Reika picked up the phone and in Briggs voice said that he was handing control over to Ms. Reika due to him having to go in for surgery. Then Reika started to connect with her Mainframe counterpart and started to come up with a plan to help save 452 and the residents of Terminal City from dying as Briggs had done with many of the Spartan Transgenic units through his reckless actions. Now it was her turn to make things right. 

She called in Spartan unit C-748 to her office as she morphed back into her human form and told him of her plan to make him her second in command to the Spartans. Black Cell was going to be their target after the liberation of Terminal City and Cerberus would soon have the support he needed soon in ninety minutes. 

***

Sam Affleck was looking at the impromptu base Shadow had set up for the Transgenics stuck outside of Terminal City looked as if it was kluged from different hardware that could be scrounged up. It wasn't until she saw the Cyrillic type on one of the keyboards that she realized that some of this stuff was stolen from various foreign governments. 

"Hey Shadow" Sam said looking at the gear inside of the old church seeing the power generator supplying power to the place on such short notice. "It looks like we have a considerable amount of communications gear here. Let me guess Eyes Only had you do his cable hack for him and probably while you were at it decided to upgrade his communication system at the same time." Sam said to Shadow as he moved over to one of the computers he was monitoring. 

"Yeah I did, and boy did Eyes need that upgrade badly." Shadow said as he turned to the floor of the Church as the various members of the Informant Net, S1W and Freak Nation who had started with Cerberus's help whittling away at Ames White's contact network with the Familiars. So they would only have to be dealing only what Forces White could physically scrounge up by himself. But McKinley was another matter given all the Black Ops information they had leaked to the press with substantial documentation and names and logs about him being the government supply guy for the Familiar's cult. And now McKinley was in hot water for high treason. Grace a female Brainic who was sitting at her large amorphous theater domed Data desk pod turned to see something going down on the monitor behind her. It was a news report of something going down inside of House Chambers. The newscaster said that Senator McKinley had barricaded himself into his office after allegations had come to light to him supporting a group of international terrorists called the Conclave. Grace's plans to make the lives of two of their major opponents out of the game, now it was time to make the Conclave know that you did not fuck with people's lives and get away with it. 

"Hey Shadow the plan is going as planed in that if Cerberus's friends show up we will be able to handle White on our own terms." Grace said as she got up from her terminal and walked over. "Shadow, Sam I think that we have company." Grace said as she pointed to the video monitory watching the outside. There was a small boy getting out of the Truck that Sam and her husband had arrived in. It took only one look at the child to realize that it was her son Danny. 

"Oh my God. Danny." Sam said looking at the fact that her adopted son had stowed away and had come with them. "Shadow that is my son, we need to put him someplace safe until this mess can blow over." Rick her husband nodded in agreement. 

"Yeah, remind me to ground him for a month for pulling this." Rick Affleck added in agreement with his wife. 

"Okay... Okay. I agree with you. Sam, go outside and get your son. I can stash him here until the mess blows over." Shadow said as he took a look in Jim, Nani, Fiona, Van and Riece's direction. "Well it looks like the five of you are going to get a bunkmate out of this," 

It took several moments of Sam and her husband chewing out their son before they placed him with the other "Children." Shadow understood Sam's feelings, he was a soon to be dad and the fact that Jade his wife was trapped in Terminal City ate at him a little each day. Knowing that Cindy was in there with her made him feel a little better. For an Ordinary Human, she knew how to pull her won weight. But right now he turned his attention towards Melfina and the other members of Strike team that he had cobbled together from Logan's files. Mel was working her ass off on the phones. Within the last few hours she had contacted with the others, a good chunk of the Familiar community with the pass phrase and code terms that they used to launch an operation. But Mel was getting hoarse in the process as she was taking a break from the phone lines and standing by the water cooler. She had contacted at least one hundred people in the last few hours and she was looking tired. Hottie one of the T-Bloods was sleeping in the lap of a S1W member named Turok who was the one who had gotten the power and phone lines into this place wired into in a matter of hours. But the mood changed into alert one status when McKinley forced his way out of his office with a gun in his and yelled the words "The Coming cannot be stopped." In the next moment right on live television he put the gun to his head and blew his brains out. White would be now desperate and that would make any actions towards the residents of Terminal City key cannon fodder for folks attempting to readjusted their alliances in the political landscape now taking root in Washington on both coasts. The question now on everyone's mind was "What did the Transgenics know about McKinney's involvement in this group?" And "How much do they know about what this group is up to make McKinney commit suicide the way he did?" Shadow knew that Max and the others in TC were about to get a visit by a delegation that wanted the answers. Well it was time for him to get on the phone and tell Max and Logan the 411 on the current tactical situation. This was going to be a long conversation. 

***

Clemente was sitting in his office when he got a phone call. It had been days since he had encountered Max. But from what had come out through the media and Eyes Only's investigation, she and her people were just being used as scapegoats for a Biological weapons theft from their own base. Now with two of the major Anti-Transgenic voices exposed as running interference for the investigation of the true events of the Manticore fire. He and several individuals had been selected by the governor to be at the negotiation table. But the feeling all around as he walked through the barricades and past the various National Guard personnel was that there was a mood that the Transgenics were holding back and not wanting to start a conflict with the humans of Seattle, It was his job to figure out how much they were holding back either in their troop movements and activities. Furthermore Clemente was thinking about Max's decisions to stay in Terminal City. He was about to learn more about the Transgenics in the next few hours than he ever thought he would. 

The meeting place the Transgenics had set up was in the old parking structure where he had run into them when the Siege had begun. Being escorted to the site by several Transgenics who were unarmed put his mind to rest little but given their enhanced strength and combat training, if they really wanted them dead then Clemente and his delegation would have already be dead. Though he could sense nervousness among them especially from the blond Cat girl walking with them. She looked as if she was worried that he and the rest of the human delegation was going to hurt her. He wouldn't blame her considering the amount of violence targeted towards her own people. But it was the rest of the escort group that had him interested in why the Transgenics had sent a small number out to greet with them. Between the Cat girl there were three X-series Transgenics that looked like they were no older than fifteen to sixteen years old and Two older X-series moving with them and the older male of the group was clicking with his tongue as he slowly circled the group as they were walking. 

But it was the youngest of the X-series kids that gave him the creeps in that she had no Iris's in her eyes as she let her pixy style dark hair move with the breeze as they entered into the conference "Room" that was set up for the meeting to take place in. The layout was of a few cubical dividers that made up the walls set out in the parking garage and a long piece of dry wall place on sawhorses to serve as a table. The chairs seemed to be professional office chairs that looked like they had seen better drays covered in blankets probably to disguise the fact that they had urine stains or had no cushions on them. 

Sitting at one end of the table with Max were several Transgenics consisting of X-series and Animal types; two of which were the two Transgenics that had run into Jam Pony and started the hostage standoff. Max looked like she knew they were coming and that the events of the past few days she had been informed about. 

"Hello Clemente. Long time no see." Max said as her black jumpsuit looked like it had been recently cleaned.

"Yeah, same here." Clemente said looking at the rest of the delegation on both sides. "So you have heard about Eyes Only being back on the air." 

"Yes, I know that Eyes Only is back on the air." Max said to Clemente. "Several of my people helped supply the gear he needed to put him back on the air. After all the stuff that White did to both the Human and Transgenic community in his little war against us. He needed to be taken down." Max was not acting cocky but stating to him that White had to go down for something that she was not mentioning to him, but he got the feeling that whatever White had done made killing that Transgenic girl at Jam Pony look tame. 

"So you have heard that the Governor and several other politicians are starting to change their tune." Clemente said as Max and man wearing Glasses next to her started to lean forward. 

"I believe so given the bomb that blew up in their face with White and Senator McKinney the situation has changed." The man in glasses said next to Max. 

"Logan." Max said to the man next to her. "I believe that Clemente is right given that this might be a way out for both our peoples." 

"Clemente, I believe that we better introduce both sides of the delegation." Logan said to Clemente as the others at the table started to look at Logan with understanding especially the reptile guy. 

"Okay let's start from left to right." Max said to the human delegation. 

"I'm Domo," said a white male X-Series with short cut black hair who looked like he had seen a lot of death and secrets in his life. "I'm representing the X-series commando infiltration divisions here." He said looking at the delegation with respect. "I have had to see members of my unit captured and killed by humans and we are tired of the constant fighting." He said as Clemente could feel the weight in his voice. Next he was followed by an X-series black female that had what seemed to be tribal tattoos on her face in the shape of two light brown stripes on the cheeks of her face. 

"I'm Luna, I'm representing the members of the X-series residents of Terminal City and the rest of Seattle. I have seen my friends die and I have a sister who is with child and I want that child to come into this world free and not to be a slave to the decisions that some human makes without having suffered through what we have in our short lives." The woman said to the delegation and Clemente realized that Max wasn't the only leader these people had, she was their voice to the outside world. Then he heard from the large Canine Transgenic who was sitting next to Max to the point of hovering over her like a protective brother. 

"I am Joshua. I am a Nomilie from the Basement. People fear what they do not understand. I would like to walk in the light and not have people run away from me in fear. I would like to be a father and see my child grow up." The Canine human said with feeing in his voice. Max looked up at him and said. 

"Hey there Big Fella you know how to say it." She said to Joshua with a grin on her face. Max wanted a shared view of Cohabitation between the Human and Transgenic communities. 

"Yeah, Little Fella, I read it some of the books you brought to me and those books that Father had laying around his house." Joshua said to Max. Then it took him a moment to realize that Max and Joshua were related in someway like they were siblings from the same family. Max inheriting Mom's looks and Joshua inheriting "Dad's". A strange concept in did. But the Reptile guy did not like the way the mood was going and started to speak up. 

"Hey you two. The humans are not into bleeding hearts. They want to see what is the best way to get us under their control so that they can kill us." The Brown Reptile male Transgenic said, as he was getting irritable at them. Clemente realized that this was the Transgenic that had discharged the shotgun after the road accident. The look on Max and the others faces was that this guy had over stepped his authority. 

"Mole. I know that you have been shot at repeatedly through out your life. I know that the personnel at Manticore treated you like scum. But right now we have to take the lesser to two evils." Logan said towards Mole. It took him a moment to realize that Logan was a human. 

"Yeah Ordinary. I wonder why you are not on the other side of this table." Mole said to Logan in a near showing of who had the bigger one over their views. 

"Mole... People are people and I am standing here with you guys because I have seen the bastards that have burned both the Human and Transgenic communities." Logan said getting up from the table and staring down at Mole. "I have friends who are veterans who have fought in every major conflict from the Vietnam War all the way through the Balkans campaign. So I know your frustration. Because I helped S1W storm into a VA Clinic to get information about Manticore as well the asshole who have been pocketing the money that should have been going to veterans. So I know how angry you are." There was a pause from the reptile Transgenic as he got back into his chair. Clemente and the rest of the delegation got the feeling that Mole did not like the idea of being cornered like this, so if anything went bad Mole and others like him would start shooting and this was not a good thing. A black male transgenic who had shaved head got up and put his hand on Mole's shoulder and Mole started to calm down a lot. 

"Mole that is why Max asked my faction here to be at these proceedings due to our ability to sense things going on under the surface of what is perceptible to the outside world." The X-series said as his neatly done brown shirt and black leather jacket told volumes that he was street savvy and knew how to look at things underneath the surface. He was definitely the negotiator of the bunch who was Max's equivalent of a Betazoid Captain's aid on Star Trek. 

"Okay Jed. But you cross me I will let you know what a Desert series combat Sand Rat can do to a PsyOp if you manipulate me in any way." Mole said to Jed letting his anger be known. Clemente knew that Max was dealing with various factions that all wanted to either be left alone or were like Max and wanted to live peacefully with the Humans of the world. 

"Max I believe that after all the events on both sides. We need to have a clean start." Clemente said looking into Max's eyes as the Transgenic delegation calmed down. "Max how much do you and the others know about what White was up to and the reasons he was behind it?" Clemente said waiting for a response back from Max. 

"Clemente..." Max said to him, "White and those he has been secretly working with see us as a threat to them in that we know the secret illegal Ops they ran at Manticore as well as what biological weapons and Black Arms tech they might have gotten their hands on and sold on the Black Market." Max finished to Clemente and the human delegation. 

"Oh, Shit..." Clemente said realizing that Max was putting the pieces together about what the late Senator McKinney had been up to behind the government's back. "So let me guess you guys know the truth behind what was going on and McKinney and his buddies wanted to shut you all up." Clemente paused as he looked at the Transgenic delegation. "Well given what happened to McKinney after he committed suicide and Eyes Only's little broadcast you guys have started to get some allies in the Senate who now see that this is a mess that got way out of hand and they are willing to concede to some of your demands of being respected as individuals. So they are willing to let you voice your opinions on the hearings to really figure out what was really going on at Manticore." Clemente knew that if Max wasn't careful they would roast her alive at the hearings and she and her people's futures were going to be taken away. 

"Okay Clemente but there are some things I want taken care of on your end." Max said looking towards the delegation as she started to list down what she wanted. "Any crimes committed by Transgenics or against Transgenics is to be investigated like any normal crime would. So that means that the Annie Fisher and the Barcode Killer cases get reopened and we will get you the information from the Manticore Database so that you can learn the other side of the story. In exchange we will get you the genetic information needed that will allow these cases to be solved and explained. We would like to have this information released to the press and made public for review so that we as a community as a whole do not get the blame for the crimes committed by a few of our number." There seemed to be a concession from the entire delegation on both sides with this agreement. But there was a look on Max's face in that she sensed that there was something going on as the look on her face started to take on a dire feeling of dread starting to form on her face. This feeling seemed to be passed on Jed whom he presumed to have some sort of mental sensitivity to the people around him. Then a slender Transgenic that had rat like features on his face that mirrored those of the Transgenic that was killed by the sector police after White had staged the attack on them with. 

"Max there is some activity outside. It looks like White and his boys are about to do something nasty." The Rat man said to Max. Max just reacted as if she knew this message was coming before the Rat entered the room. 

"I know Luke... I felt them coming." Max said to the Rat man or Luke as she called him then she turned back to Clemente with worry on her face. "Clemente, White is coming with people to disrupt and destroy these proceedings. I suggest that several of my people go out with you and aid you if they plan to attack." Then Clemente heard something over his radio as the head of the security detail started to call towards the team inside. 

"Sir we have some activity going on here. It looks like Agent White is here with some people and they are armed." Then there was a scream over the radio. Both Max and Clemente knew that they were going to be fighting side by side to help save the National Guard and Cops outside. 

"Max, if you could supply any forces I think you were right about Agent White. He wants to disrupt these proceedings." Then Clemente checked his side in attempting to reach for a gun, but he realized that he had left it at the checkpoint before coming in. Then he looked sheepishly at Max. "I guess that I might need a gun to help you all out. Mind that I barrow a gun from you guys, I seem to have left mine outside." The joke was almost humorous giving the dire situation everyone was in. 

"Mole, go tell the security team that White is here and he is getting ready to battle us. Helena use your powers to contact Shadow and tell him to get his forces here ASAP. We are going to need all the backup we need." Logan said as he pulled out one of his nine millimeters that he had on him from his jacket and handed it to Clemente. "Be careful with that, the rounds have been modified to have some extra oomph to them to stop some of the earlier super-soldiers that were created pre-Manticore." Logan said looking into the officer's face. 

"What do you mean by Pre-Manticore?" Clemente said to Logan with a quizzical look on his face. 

"Max and her friends here in Terminal City are version two point oh. White used some of the earlier versions at Jam Pony to handle Max and her friends, but he lost to the latest models." Logan said to Clemente as they started to head out to where the battle was waging. 

"So how many versions of these super-solders were cooked up by Manticore?" Clemente said as he pulled out his badge and put the chain strap it had rolled up in it over his neck so that it hung on him designating him as a cop. 

"We do not know, but the Familiars were the first and Max and her kind were an updated version of the Familiar combat series because Sandeman one the Familiars engineers designed them himself, especially Max." Logan said as the started to see explosions starting to rip through one of the Heavy Personnel carriers outside. 

"Well whatever White got hold of, it must be some serious firepower to do that type of damage." Clemente said as they started to run flat out towards the battle where Sector Police and National Guard troops were fighting for their lives. 

***

White was pissed as hell. The Conclave had put a contract out on him in that they were going to let him rot for not finishing his mission to nail 452. Well whatever they did to cut him off from any further contact with the Familiar community was going to be a grievous error. Thula, the leader of the Phallic warriors had gotten a hold of several of her buddies from the Mind Walkers and Phallic warrior communities to go into a rematch with 452. This was personal for them and 452 was going to go down for good. There was not to be any Treaty between the Transgenics and Humans. If these two forces allied together then the Familiars would be placed on the run. Dammed the Ker and their beliefs in the War Bride. The Coming would be fulfilled and the Familiars would rule the world. 

***

Shadow and the Transgenics outside of Terminal City were racing like mad to their base. Melfina, Grace and several others were back at the T-Bloods Church to run the command center. Right now Asha and several S1W members armed with gear that Reika had gotten their hands on had given Shadow and the strike team some serious gear that would soon get a serious work out in the battle. 

Cerberus had been uploaded into another one of the tactical androids that Reika had located at the Spartan's base of operations. Though it was kinda strange seeing Cerberus being as a six-foot four male human. But like Reika he had chosen his form to be serious but there was a strong tint of humanity in his features making him look less menacing than Reika's choice of form. Cerberus seemed in his holograph form of a white male Caucasian whose black hair with its middle part that illustrated a sense of humanity in his face. He looked like he was a person that you would trust explicitly. But for Reika's second in command looked like an individual that would kill you in a second. But Reika seemed to have a control over him and the rest of the unit from the X-Series from the project Phoenix teams. Those X-series were the colonels of the Oh, Niners but they were brainwashed but with Sam's help she had converted them to the Freak Nation cause. Having Sam around gave the members of the Phoenix Team as they had been known to many of the S1W members. But right now as they drove to the site in the many vehicles they were in. Sitting across from Shadow was Asha and she was worried. She and Alac cared about each other. Alac was scared that she would be hurt like Rachel had been. Aspen had told her a little bit of the botched mission that cost Rachel her life. Asha knew that Alac was scared of what would happen, but Aspen's sprit sense and a sharing of dreams had allowed Asha to see some of her future. The premonition was scary as hell for her in that she saw herself at various stages of her life. Shadow knew that Asha was a little nervous about what Aspen had done but she now knew why Max and Logan were so close. It was the fact that they shared this mental link between them. But the drive was getting short as they all heard the explosions. It was time or action. 

"Lets lock and load people." Shadow and Reika yelled towards their teams. "Asha your main job is to pull the troops out of line fire and treat them." Shadow said to Asha as she handled Melfina's Hk-90 in her hands. 

"Yeah I understand from what you guys showed us of White and his crew. You guys are probably the only ones that can take them head on and win." Asha paused for a moment and realized what was going on Shadow was painting S1S into a new light as the people who saved the governments forces from White and his crew. "Hey, this might add to the fact the S1W did not commit those crimes of burning down the VA clinic ad that we are not the monstrous group people make us out to be." Asha finished as the door swung open as they raced into battle. 

***

Reporter Jennifer Silverstone of the Seattle TV station WTDK was in the middle of a battle. Sector Police and National Guard troops were having their Asses kicked by people loyal to Ames White. These individuals seemed to have superhuman speed and strength and at least several officers and troops had fallen. It was a slaughter. That was until a miracle arrived. Several individuals who looked like a mix of Humans and Transgenics started to fight these individuals. These people fought like they were possessed with the will to survive against all odds. Jason Ocean her camera man as getting shots of stuff he thought he would never see. Hell some of the sector police seemed to be picked up by an unseen force. But when he saw a small kid in the middle of the chaos that no one seemed to be getting near it was if something was protecting the kid. 

"Hey Kid go get to some cover." Jason yelled out to the kid. But a moment later the kid just turned towards him and stared to do something that was when he was heaved up off the ground and the kid was grinning. The kid turned his head towards one of the Sector cops and took his hand and twisted it while at the same time the cop's neck did the same thing until it snapped. The kid was about to do the same thing to them until a girl with dyed blue Pixie-est hair in her teens started to walk towards this kid with the powers of Stephen King's "Carrie". As they looked like they would suffer the same fate as the Sector Cop, time started to act funky as the boy yelled the word "Stop." Instead of the girl stopping where she stood like everyone else who had come into contact with this kid it was like everything else stopped as he girl continued to move. Sound started to fade away as the only thing that could be heard was the girl's footsteps. 

"452 told us that some of the Familiars had mental powers like what you are doing to the Sector Cops and Troops here." The girl said, as the boy remained motionless like a statue. "That is why she had us train with members of our kind that had mental powers as well." The girl reached into her jacket and pulled out a sawed off double barrel shotgun. "What was learned when members of my particular series went against the PsyOps is that we could manipulate time like I am doing right now. Time is fluidic jerk and you are on my turf." The girl said as she pointed the weapon at the kid's head and pulled the trigger letting buckshot fly out of both barrels. "Fe'nos tol this." The girl finished as the buckshot impacted the skull and tore the gray matter right out of the skull of the little Telekinetic freak as time for a moment stopped as the kid flew backwards then time sped up to its his chaotic state. Then the girl blurred to there the reporter and the camera guy was at. "You two okay?" The girl said to them. All those two could do was nod their heads up and down. "Yeah" was pretty much all they could get out as they girl took her shotgun and reloaded it as both the reporter and Camera man grabbed hold of each other in fear, but the girl fired a shot at a fairly large Man that had Sector Cop by the throat and caused the large behemoth to fall to the ground. "I suggest that you stay close to the Sector Cops." With that she turned around to where they could see the barcode on the back of her neck and blurred away to help another Transgenic. At that movement three people came to take the two of them as they were pulled to safety. A Sector Cop and a Blond woman whose long hair and feline-est features made the cameraman and News Woman start to stick to them closer in that they felt like their lives were in increasing danger as the two people started to provide cover fire as they started along with the Transgenic to force these counter attackers into a place where they could be rounded up. But they were not going easily. It was strange seeing Transgenics, Sector Police, and National Guard Troops working side by side. Hell even Clemente and 452 were fighting side by side and it was strange. 

. There was a Latin girl who was riding a Kawasaki motorcycle as she started taking two desert Eagle Berettas as she started firing rapidly into this group of individuals that from she had heard from the Blond and a Transgenic male that looked like he had been through a lot of damage as he had taken on a very over amped Amazon woman who had started to punch and pound him as if he was a dog chew toy. The repeated pounding he receive including having himself twisted like a pretzel. It wasn't until he got up and straitened himself out and started punching her with a pair of Iron Knuckles and a three fanged gantlet that the Amazon went down for the count. "Take That Familiar Bitch. Never fuck with someone that was designed to be shot up being the point man for urban combat." He said as he realigned his arm that looked like it had been knocked out of joint to where it was supposed to be. 

"Okay..." Jennifer Silverstone said looking at the scene unfold before her. "Let me guess that the x-series were tweaked to-do things other than human." She said as Jason her cameraman captured more of the battle with his camera. They could hear the voice of the control room yelling at them to capture more of the action as several Sector Cops were dragged off the battlefield and ere being treated by several individuals who from the looks of it were a mixture of Humans and Transgenics. This was a triage area and from the looks of it several of the military and police personnel were being treated for being shot, burned and hit by shrapnel. This was the true face of war as the battle continued outside.

***

Clemente was fighting his way with two Transgenics one of which had a Syth, which he had used to cut his way through some of the attackers. But the Sector Cop and a National Guard trooper he had teamed up started to work their way through the armed mess as they started to gather forces as they slowly started to corner the Familiars forces. The two Transgenic Clemente had hooked up were Duo, whose long braided pony tail and black baseball cap give off the feeling that he was definitely military in his combat style but he was defiantly kick ass in his mood, while the other Transgenic Derrien was almost cautious as he could feel that he was a joker when he wasn't being shot at, he was definitely business even with his ability to shoot energy bolts from his hands. Clemente got the idea that Derrien acted like Spider-Man would with his jokes. The two other humans with the group looked like this was the most action that either had seen. It was until they got a good look at Ames White, he was directing the battle against the Sector Police and National Guard troops and he was pissed as hell. Two Transgenics went after him with swords as one leaped twenty feet into the air and brought it down planning to slice Ames in half. Ames just brought his fist up and slammed it right into the guys face letting the Transgenic flip backwards with superhuman strength. A reporter from one of the Television stations caught it on tape while another Transgenic blurred with superhuman speed attempted to slice and shoot a White trying to complete what his counter part attempted to do, but he was twisted and knocked to the ground as well next to the other Transgenic. Suddenly someone in a Police pursuit cruiser slammed White to the ground as they hit him with the car going in full reverse and getting up after he had been knocked to the ground. Clemente now know that the Transgenics were right. Ames White was not human, hew was one of these pre-cursor super soldiers they called Familiars. 

Clemente soon realized that the way the battle was going the combined Human and Transgenic forces were winning. That was when White caught a glimpse of Max fighting off three of these Familiars with a pair of tonfas and she was holding her own as she slowly beat her way through them. White was working his way towards her and he was intent on killing her. But everything was about to go nuts as Duo and the Sector Cop were attacked by one of those Monster Familiars as they were forced to defend Clemente and the others from being killed. Duo used his sheath to cut the one of the smaller Familiars in half as the Sector cop fired off several rounds from his assault rifle into the head of another as it kept charging towards him. But Derrien had to deal with a monster Amazon attempt to bash his skull in with a monster concrete mallet. "I am Thula, I am your death." She said as Derrien ducked away and jumped right up with his hands glowing right into her face. The sky had cleared enough where a direct ray of sunlight that Derrien was using for his light bolts got a power boost and he slammed it right though her head, vaporizing it in the process. The Amazon from hell fell to the ground like a sack of rotten potatoes. Quickly Clemente turned his head towards to where White was about to attack Max he was quickly joined by a woman wearing a single one-piece jumpsuit and double Berettas. Clemente took a quick look down to see "Max" but not Max as she yelled out her sister

"Max watch out." Max's twin called out to her. Max turned as she slammed one of her tonfa's with such force that it broke into the head of the Familiar she was battling. That was white turned and started firing at her as Max ducked for cover. That was until Clemente and Max's sister who he would later learn was named Sam started to fire at White as he started to shoot at them. It wasn't until one of Clemente's rounds entered White's skull and brought the one time "Savior of Humanity" down. 

Those shots caused a sudden change in mood as several of the surviving forces that White had under his command started to flee but they were stopped as the Combined forces of the National Guard Troops, Sector Police, the Transgenics and their allies started to place them under arrest. 

But given the amount of force in which battle that had been fought. There was a ton of people who had to be treated for their injuries they had sustained. The Transgenics had started to pull out their supplies and treat the wounded human personnel as the Paramedics stated to arrive. This was a day that would go down in history as the Battle of the Freaks and Clemente and Max would be able to give a voice of what had happened there. Max and the Transgenic council would have their treaty in the end. 

***

Across the nation as people tuned into the national evening news they saw Jessica Silverstone give her story that would earn her the Pulletstier for Journalism. 

"As the events over the past few days have started to unfold. The Human Race as been awakened to a new threat. A threat that is out of the Other of being born with genetically modified DNA in your genetic mix, but the real threat of global terrorism. Not since the days of September 11, 2001 has the world be awakened to the amount of government corruption that would allow a group that has become known as the Familiars Conclave to get a hold of weapons of Mass destruction.

"After a methodical search through the late Senator McKinney's records and phone logs it has been discovered that he had been railroading the entire Senate Transgenic Threat Investigation to divert attention over the thefts of biological and chemical weapons form various facilities including those from Project Manticore where the members of the Transgenic community were created. With the testimony of Lieutenant Clemente as well as several members of the Transgenic community including 452. Light has been shed upon illegal operations by various factions in the US government including acts of corporate espionage, assassination, death squads, and illegal arms sales to rogue nations around the world. The full fall out of these events is still forthcoming in that several members of the defense department and various senate subcommittees have been brought up on charges of high treason."

"We will stick with this story as it develops. In other news there has been information released to the press by an inside source within the CDC that states that former NSA agent Ames White was recently discovered to be Non-human. Information from a source has stated that these Familiars as the Transgenic community has started to call them happen to be a precursor series to the Projects Manticore and Spartan Centurion class super soldiers. Given Ames White's current condition of being in a coma sustained during a shoot out with police during Battle of the Freaks incident they believe that they are uncertain if he will awaken from it soon or at all."

"Now we go on to the business to see how these events have affected the stock market." 

***

Next: 

**"****Dark Angel 2022:  Manticore Aftermath  (HDCC 2)"  **

Chapter 1: The former enemy's layer, Psychic Journey, and CJ Returns

Buzz me on any questions, comments, and story ideas? Please review. I would like to hear about what you think of the story. Your likes your dislikes, inconsistencies with the plot or misspellings of characters names or places. I just want to know if people are reading the story. I need feedback.


	13. Author Notes to Ya'll

Author's notes

Through fan requests I have decided to rename the titles so that the story is easy to read.  And that due to the complexity of the story I have created a website to sort out the characters so that ya'll can know about the complexity of the characters and the multiple storylines I have written.  

To those who said that they would read this story when I finished it, well here is a tip.  I have taken a page from Brin's book and her "Siege Saga."  I'm breaking this story into sections so the little episodes that you have read are more digestible.  I am also working on a website to explain some of the characters.  So the last chapter of this story that I have put up is the opening salvo of another story that will be titled **"****Dark Angel 2022:  Manticore Aftermath  (HDCC 2)"  **

So stay tuned and for those who have posted their ideas and made their reviews I am glad that you have stuck with me through writing this story and stay tuned for more of the continuing saga 

I Thank you all for sticking with me through writing this story and your comments and ideas have been of great inspiration to me.  To my Friends and Muses

Brin 

Shonda, 

Lord Morpheus, 

Emily Chandler, 

Johan

Megan Milinowicz

Marsha,

Big Sister (formerly known as Beatrice)

Leigh Anna Dwyer

and 

To all those who have left reviews for me.

Thank You, 

Hearns


End file.
